


Emerence

by Beecharmer



Category: Chalet School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:01:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 35,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23901793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beecharmer/pseuds/Beecharmer
Summary: Inspired by Commander Christie's comment in Shocks about Emerence."She's got the biceps of a young infant Hercules!"Also following the thought - so often in comics, superheros have impossibly good and sensible parents. What would happen if "Cranks" like the Hopes were involved instead.





	1. Chapter 1

January 23rd 1936, Sydney, NSW, Australia 

Mr Hope sat by his wife's side, and stared angrily at the adoption officer.

"What d'you mean, there is nothing you can do? We have come to you for help, and you say that we can't adopt a child because we are a few lousy years over your age limit?"

He raged at the officer, and threatened the job of everyone in the building, offered donations to any cause they wanted. 

But for all his temper tantrums, and for Mrs Hope's pleading, the adoption officer couldn't change the facts. He simply repeated that the adoption committee was very strict about giving children to older parents, no matter how much money they had. 

Although the officer could not admit this, the Hope's financial situation would have swayed the committee with respect to the age rule, but they unanimously decided against this after Mrs Hope expounded her views on parenting. She seemed more interested in having a subject for trying out her views that children ought never to be spoken to harshly, and always allowed their own way wherever possible. 

"They should be as free as the birds of the air, allowed to develop naturally" she had said evangelically in answer to nearly all questions on routine and discipline.

Mr Hope was quite clearly more down to earth, but it appeared that he was seldom around, and he treated his wife more like a child than a partner, giving in to her every whim and fancy. 

The adoption committee were sure that any child they gave the Hopes would have anything money could buy, and far too few of the things that money can't get like routine and safety through discipline. 

So although they looked longingly at the cheques that Mr Hope pushed their way, the decision was final. 

The Hopes left the government offices and drove back out to their home in Manley. Mrs Hope was crying, never having heard the word no before, and being unable to cope with not being to get her wish.

Mr Hope was grim faced, and determined to use whatever contacts he could to overturn the decision. He adored his wife, and hated to see her unhappy in any way. He also had always wanted a child, and felt angry that for all his wealth, he could not get them one so far. 

All of a sudden, there was a FLASH of green light to one side, and an object hit the ground to the side of the road with a huge BANG!!

Mr Hope swerved off the road, checked his wife was unhurt, then left the car to investigate. He approached a small smoking crater cautiously, wonder what on earth he would find. 

Inside the hole was a strangely shaped pod, about the size of a small car. Even as he watched, the smoke cleared further, and he saw a flashing red and yellow button on the side of the pod. As if drawn to it, he clambered into the crater, and before he knew what he was doing, he had pressed the button. 

In one smooth movement, the pod opened. Mr Hope wasn't quite sure what he had expected to see, but the reality of the pod's contents was certainly a surprise. 

A tiny baby girl stared back at him. She had sharply pretty features, and fine flaxen hair. She was resting on a supremely soft blanket, with a pattern that Mr Hope initially saw as recurring red Ss, but realised on closer inspection were actually slightly angular Es. 

Mrs Hope had cautiously left the car by now, and followed him to the pod. At the sight of the young girl, she gasped, and instinctively picked her up and held her close. The girl cuddled in to her and gripped tightly to her coat edge. 

Mrs Hope held her breath, unable to believe the feeling that this little gesture of trust gave her. Without a word, she turned and went back to the car, the tiny girl cradled carefully in her arms. 

Mr Hope was left looking at the pod, unsure what to do next. The metal was cooling now, and he saw a pattern of what looked like lilies and that same E symbol again and again. 

All around the rim of the door were markings that looked like the pattern CCCIV then a gap, some round circles, those flowers that looked like lilies, the E, and then the CCCIV again. He couldn't at present work out what this all meant, but one over riding thought blocked out all others in his mind. 

This baby was meant for them. To have arrived like this when they were wanting a child so badly, it couldn't be coincidence. But he knew that if the authorities became involved, there was no way that the Hopes would be allowed to keep her. She would be taken away, investigated, maybe even hurt. 

Even on their short acquaintance, the tiny girl had taken hold of his heart in a way only his wife ever had. He wasn't going to risk harm to her in any form. 

He went to the car, and almost in a dream, drove the rest of the way home. As soon as he arrived, he sent out two of his trusted members of staff out with a truck, and they returned with the pod, which was stowed in a nearby outbuilding for now. 

As he re-entered the house from looking at the pod again, he saw his wife carefully laying the baby down, then looking at him hopefully. He put his arms around her, and kissed the top of her head, then he looked down into the vivid eyes of the baby girl. 

"What shall we call her?" he asked softly. Mrs Hope breathed a sigh of relief. She bubbled immediately with enthusiasm. 

"Well I thought it ought to begin with E, so I looked at the baby name book, and I wondered about Eliza, or Elsbeth, or ... Well it is an unusual one, but I quite liked Emerence, for Saint Emerentiana..."

He looked at the book she was pointing to, and scanned the names. He was drawn back to one of them as if by a magnet. With a slightly hoarse voice, he said "Emerence. Her name is Emerence." 

Mrs Hope had quite liked the name Elizabeth, but he was unusually firm on this point, so she was happy enough to agree. The mere fact of a baby of her own was more important than a name. 

Out in the outbuilding, the pod glowed in the dim light, then resealed itself, becoming simply a grey metal shape, not unlike a sculpture. The only thing left reflecting the light was the largest of the E markings, which glinted and sparkled as the moon shone in on it through the window. 

Back inside Emerence Hope gurgled contentedly in her blankets, looked up at her new parents, then turned to one side and fell quickly asleep. 

Her life on earth had begun. The Hope's lives were never going to be the same again.


	2. Chapter 2

Emerence crawled over to her mother, and pulled herself up using the edge of the sofa and looked up for approval. 

"Well done, darling" cooed her mother, and gave her a biscuit for her efforts. Emerence looked at the biscuit, sucked on it for a bit, made it nice and soggy then carefully placed it on her mother's lap for safekeeping, and went back off for an explore of the room. 

Mrs Hope watched her go with proud, though tired, eyes. Emerence had been so much easier before she was mobile. Somehow free range child rearing and never telling a child No was a lot easier in theory than practice. 

Emerence had found a toy ball, and was pushing it off in front of her, watching it in surprise as it moved away, then following it. Mrs Hope watched her with half an eye, wondering vaguely if all babies crawled that fast. It almost seemed as though Emerence had barely started to move before she was on the other side of the room. 

The ball had rolled behind the sofa, and Mrs Hope knew that she would need to get up in a moment and move it out from the wall to retrieve the toy. Just now, however, she wanted to sit for a little longer. Emerence would wail if she was too upset by the loss. 

All of a sudden, she felt the sofa move forward, and found herself facing a different part of the room. Getting up and looking behind the sofa, she saw a contented Emerence playing with the ball in the V shape now made between the wall and the sofa back. 

This, Mrs Hope felt, was not normal. She was sure that she herself would have difficulty in moving the sofa with someone sitting on it. She must have dozed off, and her husband had come in and moved the furniture for Emerence. 

Yes, that must be it. After all there was no way that a baby could have moved that weight. 

Mrs Hope decided that she obviously needed a lie down. She picked Emerence up, and took her upstairs to her cot. The cot itself had been a compromise. Mrs Hope had wanted to have Emerence "Free as the birds" with no restraints. But after dozing off a few times with Emerence unrestrained, and finding the girl out in the back yard prodding a snake with a stick, even Mrs Hope had decided that perhaps a few restrictions were necessary. 

She laid Emerence down and placed some toys with her, then went off to her own bed for a rest. 

Emerence wasn't sleepy. She looked at the toys in the cot with her and put her lip up in disgust. She didn't wail, having learnt quickly that once Mrs Hope had decided to put her in the cot, no amount of noise would bring her back into the room. 

Emerence gripped the side of the cot and pulled herself up to a standing position. She rattled the bars in frustration. The bolts on the cot front began to loosen. Emerence looked out at the more desirable toys on the floor of her bedroom. She wanted to be out there, not stuck in this mini cage. She pushed on the bars again.

Mrs Hope dozed fitfully, feeling at some level that the sounds in the house were wrong but not quite able to wake enough to work out what was going on. 

She woke unrefreshed, and decided that she had better see whether Emerence was awake and needed changing. She went groggily next door to Emerence's room. For a moment she was not quite able to process what she was seeing. 

The cot side had broken off on one edge, wood splintered around the restraining bolts, and Emerence was nowhere to be seen. 

Cursing the lack of build quality of modern furniture, Mrs Hope began a rather panicked search of the nearby rooms. 

After rushing through both up and downstairs rooms, Mrs Hope went outside, dreading what she might find. A quick look at the snake that lived under their porch at least showed that the baby wasn't there again. 

Mrs Hope ran in and out of the Outbuildings, and scanned the garden, in ever increasing state of panic. Lastly she returned to the kitchen, and sat at the table trying to collect her thoughts. 

As she sat there, she heard a tiny snore, and looked around in amazement. Behind her, the stove sat in a brick alcove, with a small ledge around the edge. Mrs Hope's eyes finally saw a tiny foot, just peeking around from behind the metal oven part of the stove. 

She leapt to her feet and rushed to the baby, sure she must be at least scalded, if not badly burnt. 

But Emerence was merely curled up on the brick ledge, resting one small hand on the metal of the oven as if for comfort. 

Mrs Hope lifted her daughter out, catching her bare skin on the hot metal even as she did so. She hurried out of the room, intent on making sure that no harm had come to Emerence. 

She undressed the baby carefully, and examined every inch. Miraculously, there didn't seem to be a mark on her, she merely grumbled slightly at being disturbed from her sleep. 

Once the adrenaline rush of checking over Emerence had died down, Mrs Hope became aware of her own pain, and went back to the kitchen to run cold water on the nasty burns that had appeared where she had had contact with the hot metal stove. 

As she did so, she looked at the brick ledge. It seemed a miracle that Emerence had managed to get right round behind it without burning herself. 

Mrs Hope could have sworn that when she had found the baby, she had been resting her hand against the metal. But that can't have been the case, for Emerence would surely have had burns at least as bad as those Mrs Hope had now. 

\-----------------

Mr Hope listened to his wife's tale with half an ear. It seemed so unlikely, she must have dreamt it. He wondered at the broken cot, and saw the burns on his wife's arm, but dismissed it as poor workmanship and female hysteria, before returning to his accounts and figures.

He had a new deal about to go through, and his mind was fully occupied by that, he didn't have time for silly dreams about escaping babies. 

They bought a new cot, the finest that Grace Brothers department store in Sydney could provide, and went on as before.

\--------

The first inkling Mr Hope had that Emerence was somewhat unusual was one evening when again analysing some figures one late night.

Emerence had been put to bed, and Mrs Hope had retired early herself, worn out with a day of looking after her daughter. The little girl was now a confident walker, and seemed to have gone straight from crawl to run, leading Mrs Hope a merry dance from morning till night. 

Mr Hope was thinking at the back of his mind that they would have to get some help for looking after Emerence, his wife was clearly getting worn down doing it by herself. They had avoided this so far, worried that other people knowing too much detail about Emerence might lead to discovery that she wasn't their own child. But Emerence was becoming more than one person's work, from all accounts. 

As the little girl grew, she quickly found that she didn't need to break the bars, she was able to pull herself up, do a forward roll over the top bar, and then drop down to the floor. 

After finding her there a few times, the Hopes invested in a stair gate, and left Emerence to wander freely around her room. This was usually enough for her, and she settled down to sleep when she felt the need. 

Tonight however she was bored with the toys in her bedroom, and wanted to be downstairs with her father. 

A short while later, Mr Hope felt a tap on his arm, and absently took hold of the object resting against him. As he paid more attention, he looked down to see that he was holding the top of the baby gate, the rest being held up to him by Emerence, a baby serious look on her face as she held it up. 

"Thank you Emmie," he said as a reflex, at which Emmy let go of her own grip on the gate, and toddled off on her own errands. He was taken by surprise, and nearly dropped the gate with the sudden increase in weight now that his daughter was no longer taking the majority of the burden. 

His jaw dropped open and he followed the little girl toddling about with his eyes. He mentally worked back through what must have happened, looking from the stairway to Emerence in shocked concentration. 

He didn't have much experience of toddlers, but he was fairly sure that most of them couldn't even open baby gates, let alone lift them off their rests, carry them downstairs and give them to their parents...

Emerence continued to play happily, in her own world, satisfied that she had got the message across to her father. If she wanted to be out of her room, she would do it, and the quicker her parents realised this amd stopped putting annoying bars in her way, the better. 

Mr Hope continued to stare open mouthed at the child, mind awhirl with his new discovery. They were going to have to cope without hired help, he decided, the was no way that they could risk an outsider seeing Emerence doing things like that.


	3. Chapter 3

Emerence ran along the path through the trees, and burst out onto the beach. She reveled in the heat of the sunshine, spinning slowly around in the warm rays, enjoying the hot sand on her feet. 

She looked around her. No one seemed to be in sight, the beach a great expanse of space before her. The tiny girl began to run, feeling the power of her muscles pushed to full extent.

Had she been able to see herself, she would have looked a blurred mass of colour passing along, followed by a cloud of disturbed sand. She stopped finally, 10 miles on, made a turn and sped back, finishing up at the end of the Hopes' grounds only minutes after she started out. 

Having got rid of a small proportion of her energy, she settled down in a hollow of sand with her latest book. It was one of the "Lavender Laughs" series, a bit young for her really, but she liked the name of the girl that it was based on. Lavender Leigh. 

Somehow the combination of the two names starting with L always held a fascination for her. In fact all names starting with the same letter for first and second name had a pull for Emerence, in part due to her own parents using names beginning with H. Somehow she found comfort in the repetition. 

Her super strong hearing meant that even a mile away she heard her mother calling from inside the house. Emerence contemplated ignoring her, she knew her mother would do nothing if she did not come to her call, but she was bored and a little hungry, so she may as well go and find out what her mother wanted. 

Mrs Hope had called a few times, and then given up, not really expecting Emerence to come. At 9 years old, Emerence was a law unto herself, and her strength and speed were getting hard to conceal. They had managed to get the girl to understand that she needed to hide her unusual qualities, but as Emerence grew, she needed more and more exercise, and the risk of discovery seemed ever present. 

Mrs Hope turned back to her guest, and offered him more tea. He thanked her, and resumed his questions. 

"I just wondered why Emerence was being educated at home?" he said. "She is several years past the age that we normally expect children to be in full time schooling."

Mrs Hope had a mad moment where she wanted to tell the man 'She's educated at home because she is already stronger than two grown men, faster than a speeding bullet and has a tendancy to hover in mid air when asleep, would you like two lumps of sugar in your tea, or just one?' 

But she didn't. Keeping Emerence's secret was the most important thing in her life. So far there had been little outside interference, and the visit of this officious little man worried her. 

"She has some health issues, she isn't suitable for the school system." was all she said. 

The man was not really happy with this answer, and pressed her to explain the health issues. Mrs Hope was prepared for this, with vague details implying safety issues and need for constant one to one attention, filling in the gaps in the story with her own views that school and rules stifled the spirit. 

Here the man began to get annoyed. 

"You say that Emerence needs constant attention, Mrs Hope" he said putting his pen down. "Yet you called some time ago, and appear to have no idea if anyone is supervising her at all. Where IS Emerence, Mrs Hope?"

"Here." came a voice, australian accent tinged with a sound that belonged to Emerence alone. The nearest approximation an English speaker might make of her voice was Cockney, but to the education officer's ears, she sounded strange, not quite typical for Manley or Sydney. 

"What are you doing here?" Emerence asked, in the tone of one who expected to be obeyed. "You seem to be being nasty to Mum" 

If he had been facing the girl, he would have seen the beginnings of red glowing in the centre of her pupils. However he was still with his back to her, and missed it. 

Mrs Hope saw the warning signs, and hurriedly said. "Oh no, Emmie, I'm fine baby girl, the man was asking some questions, that's all. Thank you for coming back when I called. Why don't you go upstairs and play for a bit?"

The red began to die away in Emerence's eyes, as she looked from the man to her mother and back again. 

"I'll stay here" she said, in that commanding tone of one unused to being disciplined or required to give adults respect. "The man was asking about me. Well I'm here." 

The education officer was strangely knocked off balance by this self possessed child. He cleared his throat and looked back down at his papers. 

"Well... Uh... We need to see Emerence's birth certificate, and some sign that she is getting an education. She also doesn't appear to have ever been registered with a doctor?"

Emerence looked at him, then at her mother. Mrs Hope looked worried. 

"Our, er, paperwork my husband deals with, I will ask him to contact you" she said, trying not to sound concerned. "Emerence is ...er... under specialist care. She hasn't been to the local doctor because she hasn't been ill"

The man snorted incredulously. "She is a child, all children get ill" he said, in a clearly irritated tone. 

"No they don't, rude man" said Emerence. "I haven't been ill, and I know all that I need to know, going to school won't help me learn any faster. Isn't it time you left?"

The man stared at her, then at Mrs Hope, clearly expecting some sort of remonstrance from her at Emerence's rudeness. But Mrs Hope had had enough. She wanted Emerence to grow up free to develop at her own pace, and she DID feel the man was rude. 

Seeing that her mother wasn't going to tell Emerence off, he began to try to do it himself. 

"You are being very impertinent," he said, "Little girls ..."

Emerence was no longer interested. She had no respect for anyone who tried to talk down to her. She already knew that she could pick this man up with one hand and throw him out, and she was contemplating doing just that. She had promised her father however recently that she wouldn't use her strength on other people. Emerence had no discipline, but she had a core of honesty that meant whenever she remembered in time, her word was her bond. 

But that didn't mean that she had to stay where the temptation to break her word was so high. She wasn't leaving her mother to be bullied either, so she needed the man to leave. She looked at his fountain pen, being twisted in his hand as he spoke. She plucked it out of his hand, and said "You need more ink" and shook the pen hard.

Ink flew everywhere, and the man pushed back from the table with an exclamation. His white shirt was now blue, and his pen appeared to have bent in the middle. 

He looked at the girl. She was looking healthy, had no discipline, but realistically there was nothing that they could do to make her parents educate her at school or follow any parenting guidelines unless there were neglect or criminal issues. 

His visit had been at the request of several neighbours, who seemed concerned that the girl was being neglected. But there was no clear evidence of that, the girl seemed confident and healthy enough. He looked at her again and was disconcerted to see the red glow in her eyes this time.

"Er... Uh... Just send in the birth certificate and health details, we will check again in 6 months" he said, and hurried out. 

Mrs Hope stroked her daughter's flaxen hair, and looked at the sharp featured little face. She ought to be angry, but Emerence had got rid of the man, and she had been clearly trying to protect her mother. 

\------ 

That evening Emerence heard her parents arguing, a rare event. Her mother was worried about something to do with her birth certificate, her father seemed to be doing something involving needing careful penmanship, as he growled at his wife not to knock the table. Mrs Hope was saying in a worried tone. 

"Surely they will find out, there are laws and rules about this sort of thing?" She said. 

"Rules are meant to be broken" replied Mr Hope. "Now let me concentrate."

\-------

The local government officer received the paperwork for Emerence and filed it without looking too closely. After his last visit, it had been made clear to him that Mr Hope had contacts in departments far higher than his own, and turning a blind eye would be best for his career. 

The girl seemed safe, and healthy, and he had no great desire to risk his career for her. He still dreamt on occasion of glowing red eyes in a small fair child, but those dreams became less frequent as the months and years from the original visit went past. 

When the 6 month check came around, he thought about going back to the Hope house, then those eyes came back to him, and the shirt and pen he had had to throw away. 

He knew she was still active and apparently healthy, due to sporadic complaints of her disturbing various neighbours, or damaging their property. But so far Mr Hope's influence in the police department and willingness to pay for any damage had avoided any official record of the girl's doings. 

He put her file back in the drawer and put her out of his mind. Emerence Hope could take care of herself, that was one thing he was sure about. He didn't envy any school that had to deal with her.


	4. Chapter 4

Emerence tapped her pen on the desk as she thought, the realised too late what she was doing, as a chip of wood flew off the edge of the desktop. Her governess sighed and went to get some glue to fix the desk. 

Sometimes she felt more like a handywoman than governess. Emerence did her best, but just couldn't help leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Accustomed to being allowed freedom from an early age, Emerence could only be made to work when she wanted to, and then only when she saw the point of the things that she was learning. At all other times she roamed the local homes in an almost feral way, often going into neighbour's houses when hungry and eating there. 

This situation had arisen when Emerence was a tiny girl, and the neighbours had in general felt sorry for her, or assumed her to be a friend of their own children. Too late, many of them realised that she now considered it a right. Few of them wished to upset Mr and Mrs Hope, however, so Emerence was allowed to continue her scattered existence. 

The current governess was the latest in a string of people sworn to secrecy about Emerence's abilities, and well paid to keep quiet one they left. Each began the same way, sure that they could cope, then left within months after Emerence's tireless energy had worn them out. In between Emerence did only what lessons she pleased, and quickly learnt what actions would usually make the governess leave. 

The current governess had appealed to Emerence, appeared to understand her better than previous ones. She had worked more consistently at her lessons than she ever had before. But even Emerence's best behaviour was unusual, having no real clear idea of safety rules that humans learnt and followed as a matter of course. 

The work for the day finished, Emerence and her governess went for a walk to the beach. Or rather, the governess walked, Emerence raced back and forth with objects to be identified, or just for the fun of running. They reached the beach finally, and the governess settled down on the sand to read, while Emerence swam a few miles and surfed for a while. 

The governess finished her book and sighed to see that Emerence still wasn't back. She called the girl and went back to the house, knowing that Emerence would have caught her up long before she got there. 

True to her expectations, the girl zoomed past and was sitting on a wall waiting for her before she had got half way there. 

"How far did you go today then?" the governess said absently, as she made her way into the house. 

"Twenty miles, at least I think so Biddy" said Emerence. "I surprised some people I think, there were a few people screaming about sharks over at the main beach. I didn't see any though. So I wonder if it was just me they saw."

"You do need to be more careful, my girl," said Biddy O'Ryan. "People are starting to notice you."

Emerence shrugged. Biddy changed the subject and slipped an extra bit of learning in without Emerence noticing. 

"Show me on the map then, where you went" she said. Emerence showed her, then ended up working out how far that was, and her estimate of 20 miles was pretty accurate.

Mrs Hope looked in at the two heads bent over the map and smiled. She had come to expect Emerence to drive away most governesses almost straight away, so Miss O'Ryan had been a godsend. 

She went off, humming happily to herself, able finally to spend some time on her own life for a bit. She had tried to hold to her principles of free range child rearing, but as Emerence just drove away governesses one after the other she began to lose her patience, on occasion shaking the girl until her teeth rattled and screaming incoherently at her daughter in pure frustration. 

Emerence loved her mother, and did try to behave to begin with, but the governesses seemed so boring in outlook, and their attempts at discipline so ineffectual, that she lost respect for them quickly. 

They nearly all forgot who she was, and tried to restrain or discipline her physically at one time or another. Although Emerence could easily have escaped, she was mindful of her father's warning about using her strength on others. So these pitifully weak people using their hands against her seemed both idiotic and unfair. She simply used her speed to run away from them as soon as they let go, and refused to return until the governesses gave up and left. 

Biddy O'Ryan however had a personality strong enough to manage Emerence with words, and the wisdom to know that there was no point in trying to control the uncontrollable physically. 

She was also the one who discovered by accident Emerence's weak points. She was showing the girl how people played blind mans bluff, and found to her surprise that Emerence refused to wear the blindfold, saying it made her weak. 

Gentle questioning revealed a strange effect on Emerence when her eyes were covered. She lost all of her powers, a fact that she had never told her parents, for fear they might tell the governesses, who would use it to control her. She hadn't meant to tell Biddy, but something in her knew the woman could be trusted. 

Another fact came as a complete accidental discovery to them both. Biddy had bought some new perfume, with a scent including lilies, and gave the 11 year old Emerence a spray of the fragrance. Emerence then went to do her normal trick of jumping down the length stairs, only to find her ability to hover had gone, and she landed in a heap with the first experience of pain she had ever had. 

A short time later, a cousin of Mr Hope's died, and they all attended the funeral. Emerence entered the funeral home her usual chirpy self, then fainted dead away a few steps into the room. 

Emerence herself made the connection, although without realising it. She muttered when she woke about "Like Biddy's perfume" and pointed to the lilies around the room. Biddy herself filled in the gaps, and told Mr Hope of her suspicions. Hating himself for the thought, he secretly got some more of the perfume, not wanting to admit even to himself that he felt reassured to have a possible way to control his daughter. 

She had been badly ill after the funeral home incident, worrying her parents greatly, since she had never had a day of illness before that. So no one wanted to experiment with the lily perfume, but all concerned were sure that she had a type of allergy to lilies, that rendered her at best merely human strength, at worst knocked her out for several hours. 

\-----

Biddy sat on the edge of her bed, re-reading the letter from Hilary Burns, surprised at how homesick it made her feel. She had never intended upon staying away this long, the situation with Emerence had come along and taken over her time. 

She knew that Mrs Hope would be upset, and possibly Emerence would be too. Emerence was a hard one to read, she seemed so jauntily cheeky and strong willed, but her life was quite a lonely one. Hiding her secret was difficult for the outspoken youngster, but she had a deep fear of being taken from her parents and experimented on. This gave her the will power to learn to control her strength. 

Biddy looked at the letter again. It would be a difficult decision, but she knew in her heart that she had to leave, to return home, to the Chalet School. 

She just worried about how Emerence would take it. The girl was coming to the difficult age of 12, not quite teenager, not quite child. A difficult time for anyone, let alone someone as unusual as Emerence. 

Biddy folded the letter, sighed, and made her way to Mrs Hope to hand in her resignation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that at this time (1948 ish) Emerence ought to call her governess by her last name, but I can't see Emerence doing that, and I could see a young Biddy O'Ryan not being too strict about it if it helped get through to a difficult child like Emerence.


	5. Chapter 5

Mr and Mrs Hope had pleaded with Biddy, but to no avail. She said her goodbyes, made her promise to keep Emerence's secret, and left a huge hole in their lives with her departure. 

Emerence had gone completely off the deep end, and was leaving more and more trails of destruction in her wake, becoming withdrawn and "don't care-ish" about most things. 

They were wise enough not to try another governess straight after Biddy, instead educating her themselves when possible. 

The years went by, and eventually they realised that they were not really able to teach her much more themselves. They went through other governesses, but none stayed long. 

Emerence grew into her powers, finding that the ability to hover developed into being able to jump very high, and then to fly. She had to be very careful about this, since she did not want to attract too much attention. But she often found that the only place with peace enough to settle her troubled mind was up in the clouds. 

Her parents loved her, but as the years went on, Mr Hope despaired of ever teaching her any manners or discipline. He managed to get her to be more careful by instilling a deep fear of discovery in her, but internally he worried that it would not always be possible to protect her. The local police were beginning to get more persistent about following up on vandalism complaints. 

This was not helped by one of their immediate neighbours being promoted to Sydney chief of police and getting pressure to keep his own area in order. The chief of police became less and less tolerant of Emerence's behaviour as she grew, making veiled threats to Mr Hope about reform school or juvenile detention if things did not improve. 

\-------------

On the other side of the Hope's summer home, the original neighbours finally became too worn down by Emerence to stay, and sold their house to a young family who had moved to Manly from Singapore. 

The Mackensies were a happy crew, with firm parenting from Jock and Con Mackensie, and cheerful independence from the two boys and a girl. Their youngest, a tomboy of a young girl called Jan, was intrigued by Emerence from the moment they met, a fact that her parents were not hugely pleased about. 

For all that they were a friendly family, they had limits, and it wasn't long before Emerence, now thirteen, came up against the first efforts at teaching manners that she had had for a long time. 

She had barged in on the Mackensie family at breakfast time, and sat down with them, saying

"Hello ! I've come to brekker with you. What have you got?" 

Con Mackensie, nee Stewart, sat in stunned silence. Her husband Jock however asked the girl who she was and where she came from. 

Emerence explained, and then said

"I'll spend the day with you, I'm sick of home"

Jock caught her by surprise, informing her that not only was it customary to wait for an invitation, but that her parents would need to be informed as well. He marched her firmly home and left her there. She resented the physical treatment, but also sensed a difference in his gentle but firm direction, to the lashing out in anger from her mother or the governesses. 

She had secretly envied them the calm ordered family life they seemed to have, and dimly felt that Jock and Con would stop her coming there if she did not behave, so for once she curbed her natural destructive tendancies, and they had no more problems with her just turning up. 

The Mackensies gradually came to understand Emerence a little, as they met her parents. Mrs Hope had lost a lot of her perspective on things from having to be constantly on edge about her child, and after various destructive rages from Emerence, had become convinced that one must never say "No" to a child. 

Having been shunned by their neighbours for so long, she also had lost the ability to realise that one didn't tell another parent how to deal with their child, especially when your own child's behaviour was far from perfect. 

Con Mackensie couldn't help but talk about the Chalet School, when issues about raising and disciplining children came up, trying subtly to show that many children actually thrived on gentle discipline, and sensible routine. Mrs Hope was adamant that her child would not be sent to school, however successful with difficult cases. 

Mr Hope rarely joined in these conversations, until one day when Con was describing the middles "adopting" Biddy O'Ryan. 

He suddenly became animated, asking about the age of the girl, and what had happened to her afterwards. He learnt enough to be sure that it was the Biddy that they had known, and that she had since returned to the Chalet School as teacher. 

It was too far away to really send Emerence without good reason, but he noted the details, intending to plead with Biddy to come back, or at least ask her advice on how to get his wayward daughter on track. 

He became fascinated with Con Mackensie's stories of the Chalet School, keeping coming back to the fact that Biddy O'Ryan had in effect been brought up by the school. He had been greatly impressed by the inner strength and common sense that Biddy had shown, and felt that the school must have had a good part in the development of those qualities. 

Con Mackensie raved about the school, never dreaming that he would send his beloved daughter there, but more thinking that a spell of learning how to live with others at any sort of school would do Emerence good. 

He took down every detail, with intent of making enquiries and tracking down Biddy O'Ryan. 

\--------

It was a hot Sydney summer day. Emerence lay in the Summerhouse at the end of the Hope's garden, throwing twigs in the air and setting them alight with her eyes. This was a new skill, and she was fascinated to see the leaves curl and crisp up, then the wood flare and flame. 

She blew each twig out with a super strong gust of breath before it reached the ground, and then threw up two at a time, intent on seeing whether she could light both before they fell to the ground. 

She was so intent on what she was doing that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, allowing Jan Mackensie to get quite close. The speed with which Emerence was lighting the twigs made it look from outside as if she were lighting them and throwing them, and Jan was horrified and intrigued at the same time. 

A noise from Jan outside startled Emerence, and she blew the twigs harder than planned, even as she turned to see who it was. The lit twigs flared up, spun off and landed in the roof space of the Summerhouse among the chair cushions and general rubbish from years of summer use. Emerence turned back and looked for the twigs, but didn't see them go, so assumed them to be among the unlit twigs on the floor. 

She went to the door of the summerhouse, to see the shocked expression from Jan Mackensie. Emerence demanded what she was doing, and Jan countered with asking what Emerence was doing. 

Unable to answer fully Emerence just stuck to bravado, and said she was setting things on fire because she was bored. Jan wasn't sure whether to be impressed or disgusted, even someone as young as she was knew the dangers of playing with fire in a dry Australian summer heat. 

Seeing the look of confusion, Emerence suggested that they go to find the boys, Jan's brothers, and Jan agreed eagerly. She wasn't allowed to go surfing with the boys yet, but Emerence was quite old, nearly a grown up in Jan's eyes. She was sure that if she was with someone older she would be allowed to go to the beach. 

The two girls wandered off, Jan chattering, and Emerence wondering what to say to this little being, the first one to really try to be friends with her. All of the local children were too wary of her reputation for getting in trouble, also she beat them all too easily in races and games, without really trying. 

Back in the summerhouse, the padded cotton seats began to burn, and papers, leaves and eventually the whole summerhouse followed into one big blaze. The trees nearby were dry after an extremely hot few months, and they and nearby half dead hedging began to catch as well. 

The flames began to take on a life of their own, heading determinedly towards the nearby houses, getting hotter and more powerful as they worked along. A gentle breeze from the beach seemed to almost funnel the fire to those places that it could do most harm. The fire took stronger and stronger hold.


	6. Chapter 6

The community fought the fire as soon as they were aware of it, bringing down to smoking ashes just in time to avoid the loss of the three closest houses. Emerence did everything she could, once the noise alerted her to the fact of the fire.

She felt so frustrated however, as there were so many outsiders there than all she could do in public was run slightly faster than normal human speed and carry more buckets of water than most could. 

Nobody noticed this in the confusion, the only time she was seen was when she was apparently just standing and watching it burn. 

In fact, she had seen how close the flames were to the Police chief's house and was doing her best to keep it from catching. She didn't know enough about fire to be sure if blowing would make it flare up, but she had to try, so she stood still and blew the flames back away from the house. 

It was working until the police chief himself ran right into her, swearing at her to get out of the way. She moved, but only when she had seen that the fire was under control and not heading back towards the house. 

Finally the air was full of smoke, but no more glowing lumps of hedge and tree were floating all around. The harsh smell of the smoke and ash still covered everything, but the danger had passed. The tired and wet people slowed their movements, and began to take stock of minor burns and assess the damage. 

Jan Mackensie was crying, and her mother absently held her to her side, as she surveyed the scene. Through the gulps she heard the words 'Emerence' and 'Summerhouse', and started to get an idea of what might have happened. She didn't want to end up making accusations however, so she started to draw Jan back towards their house, intent on calming her down and questioning her later. 

However her progress was stopped by the wife of the chief of police, pointing an accusing finger at Jan and saying that she had seen her and Emerence leaving the summerhouse just before the blaze began. The neighbours began to crowd around, and the situation began to take a nasty turn. 

Jan wailed more, as the neighbours pressed her to tell tales, to point the finger at Emerence, but she didn't want to say, just sniffled that they had been at the beach, and that she didn't know what had happened. 

Emerence watched in silence. She didn't want Jan blamed for something that wasn't her fault, although she realised that being distracted by Jan's appearance had been the reason for her inadvertently started the fire. She was touched at the tiny girl doing her best to protect her. 

"Jan didn't do anything," she said, affecting her 'don't care' drawl. "It was an accident. It wasn't her fault."

"No it was no accident, you demon! I saw you throwing lit flames all around the summerhouse, then running away when the little girl showed up!" shrieked the police chief's wife. 

In her defense, she had only just realised the significance of what she had seen while being nosy out of the upstairs window that afternoon. She had been badly scared by how close the blaze had got to their home, and the fact that she was dealing with a 13 year old had completely slipped her mind. "You were trying to kill us all, you little hooligan, you need to be locked up!"

Emerence just turned and ran, she couldn't explain what she had been doing without admitting her abilities, and if they tried to lock her up she would never be able to avoid showing her powers. 

Mr Hope and the police chief were now shouting at each other, culminating in the police chief saying that he gave him 3 days. If Emerence wasn't sent to some kind of reform school, he would have her arrested. 

When Emerence returned to the house, her father was understandably angry. But once he had calmed down enough to realise she had been careless rather than intending harm, he was softer with her. As much as he was frustrated with his daughter at times, he didn't envy her the secrets she had to deal with. 

"Listen, we can't talk here," he said, seeing Con Mackensie coming over from next door, and on the other side the police chief coming back, obviously having seen Emerence arrive. "Do you think you can fly and carry me?" 

Emerence nodded, mute with misery. He whispered to her quickly to wait on the beach, and he would be there as soon as he could. 

She nodded, and sped off before the police chief arrived. The man looked around angrily. 

"Where is she?" he spat out. "I saw her come back in, I'm going to lock her up now, I don't trust you, Hope." 

He started out of the room, obviously intent on taking Emerence into custody by force. "I've had enough. She needs discipline, and manners."

Mr Hope let him explore the house, knowing Emerence wasn't there. When he finally returned,Mr Hope showed him a telegram, and told him that not only would Emerence be going to school, she would be going to school in England. 

He had taken the advantage of Con Mackensie's presence to prove that the school was real, although she was rather overwhelmed that he was seriously considering this drastic course of action. 

She had only come over to find out if Emerence had returned safely, now she was suddenly finding herself apparently responsible for inflicting Emerence Hope on the Chalet School. She went away a bit dazed, and most confused. 

Mr Hope waited until his neighbours had gone and then made his way to the beach. He knew that the police chief would follow him before long, so he told Emerence to quickly fly them to a picnic spot they had visited the previous year in the Blue Mountains. It should be deserted by now, being off the main tourist trail. 

They arrived and he outlined his plan. Emerence cried and pleaded to stay, but he couldn't risk the police chief following through on his threat. He held her close in a deep hug, and waited until she was calmer. 

"Listen to me Emerence. Biddy O'Ryan is there. Now she doesn't know you are going to be going there, we will have to move too quickly for that, but I'm sure she will help."

He hoped that the woman would be there still, and that she would help his wayward daughter to cope. He stroked her hair and looked her in the eyes. 

"You have to make this work my girl. If not, if you do anything that makes them send you back from this Chalet School, the authorities will make me send you to a reform school. I'm telling you, this gives you the best chance to start fresh. You will be with girls your own age, it should be good."

Emerence wasn't convinced, but she saw they had no choice. She was also swayed by the fact that Biddy O'Ryan would be there, even if she wouldn't be able to spend much time with her. She took her father back to the house and they arranged an air flight to England for the following morning. 

Mr Hope waited until his daughter had fallen asleep, then watched her sleeping for hours. At least she had stopped hovering in her sleep, and she rarely forgot about using her strength against others. She should be able to hide even in an enclosed environment like a boarding school. 

He hoped with all his heart that the Chalet School was as good as Mrs Mackensie had said. His Emerence did need some discipline and structure, she was lost at the moment, and he just hoped that this would be the change to help her find her way. For now he just watched the sharp little face, flaxen hair tousled in sleep, and wished that he didn't have to send her away.


	7. Chapter 7

(From Shocks with a few adjustments to cut out bits not needed here)

"A Cable, Miss Annersley"

Miss Annersley, Head of the Chalet School, looked up from the letter she was writing. 

Rosalie Dene, her secretary and an ex-pupil of the Chalet School, said. 

"From Australia. You will ... Well, I will let you read it..." 

The Head sat back in her chair and read, half to herself : 

"Am sending daughter Emerence to you for next four years Stop Emerence thirteen years and eleven months needs discipline and has no manners Stop Please correct faults and help Stop Send all accounts to Victoria Wool Growers Modern Assurance Company Ltd. Elm St. London S.W.7 Stop References from Mrs John Mackensie of Manly Sydney known to you Stop Emerence leaving on next plane for England Stop Completely in your hands Stop From Hope High Leaps Manly nr Sydney N.S.W."

" Well!" 

"I feel that way too," her secretary agreed. "We have room for her, if that's all"

"But it isn't by any means all! I know we have room. At the same time I'm not at all anxious to fill up any vacancy with a pupil who needs discipline and is minus manners. The ordinary new girl is quite enough trouble as a rule, until she settles down, without any fancy touches being added."

"Perhaps she isn't as bad as the cable makes out," Rosalie suggested hopefully. 

"My dear girl! When a parent writes like that to one - well cables, then, if you must be so particular ! - it generally means that the girl in question is utterly outrageous. Most parents seem to think that their offspring are world wonders of the first water"

Rosalie picked up the piece of paper on which she had typed the contents of the cable and glanced through it again. "What had we better do about this?"

"We can't do anything at the moment. I think the best thing will be for you to ring up the B.O.A.C offices and find out when the next plane from Australia is due. Whatever we do decide about thus child, someone must meet her."

Rosalie left at once, and Miss Annersley read through the cable again slowly and thoughtfully. She sighed and made a start on her post, since there was nothing more that could be done about Emerence Hope at the moment. 

Rosalie returned just in time to hear a little exclamation from her employer.

"Oh! Con Stewart's writing! Now, perhaps we may learn a little more about this Emerence child. No; don't go away, Rosalie, I shall probably need you. Sit down and I'll read it to you in a moment."

"Listen to this !" she exclaimed after a moment."

With her elbows most reprehensibly on the desk and her chin cupped in her hands, Rosalie fixed her eyes on the reader and listened with all her ears to what followed: 

Dearest Hilda,

I'm glad I'm nowhere near you, for I doubt if I could look you in the face. And yet a lot of it isn't my fault. At the same time, I imagine that if I hadn't waxed so eloquent about the Chalet School, the Hopes - or, rather, Mr Hope - would hardly have thought of sending that young demon of theirs to you. 

Hilda paused. "There are some details of Jock's promotion, the family and their new house in Manly, Sydney. I'll give you the letter later to see all of those details. I'll read out the bits we need to know to prepare for this young Emerence." she said to Rosalie, then continued with the letter. 

'To start with, did you ever hear such a name? She's called after St Emerentiana, a friend if little St Agnes, who was found sobbing to death at the tomb and was stoned to death by some pagans. If you keep her, you'd better put her in St Agnes House. 

She is, without exception, the perkiest, most impudent, do-as-I-like youngster I've had the ill-luck to meet. As a matter of fact she's the result of being brought up by a pair of the maddest cranks on earth. They think that children should " be allowed to develop along their own lines" and have never, so far as I can judge, made the slightest attempt to check their daughter's wildest goings-on. 

Hilda paused again and said "She goes onto describe Emerence just turning up to theirs for breakfast and announcing that she will spend the day with them! Also a few details on Mrs Hope's parenting views, which sound rather woolly to me! Again, I'll let you read those yourself. Now where was I ? Ah yes."

Anyhow, Miss Emerence has cooked her own goose this time. Three days ago she decided that life was dull and she could do with some excitement. What does she do, but set fire to a little summer-house at the bottom of their garden for the fun of seeing it blaze? There has been next to no rain for weeks now, and the result was that she nearly set not only their own place ablaze, but ours and the next door neighbour on the other side as well! Mercifully it was got under control in time, but it was a near thing, I can tell you ! 

The result is that Emerence is to be packed off by the first plane that comes handy, he having been much impressed by all I've said about the Chalet School. 

There were more details, including a hint that it seemed Mr Hope may well know Biddy O'Ryan, and a suggestion that they interrogate the history mistress as soon as possible, along with the fact that Emerence tended to leave a trail of destruction in her wake, and that the Hopes could well afford any breakages and seemed to be expecting large bills.

As Miss Annersley finished reading, Rosalie was looking dazed. 

"Do you really mean we've a young fire-raiser wished on us? Oh Lord!"


	8. Chapter 8

Emerence looked pensively out of the plane window. She understood now why her father had repeated 3 times that she must stay on the plane, not be tempted to go outside. There was a huge handle on a door to the outside that just begged to be turned. Also the clouds looked so inviting, she really wanted to be out there, flying alongside this compressed tin can of a space. 

She gripped the arm rest in frustration, then gave an internal groan as she felt the rest and side of the chair splinter and crush beneath her grip. She had already broken a chair in the airport the same way. She released the hand rest and covered it with a magazine, hopefully no one would notice until she was off the plane. 

She returned to moodily looking out of the window. There was a stopover for fuel soon, maybe she could slip off and fly the rest of the way? No, she didn't know the way, also there would probably be a load of hassle if she wasn't in her seat. Ah well. It could be worse. Emerence had had time to realise just how close she had been to being locked away. She was so used to absolute freedom of movement that the idea of being locked up or enclosed at all filled her with fear. 

The miles passed slowly, Emerence tried to follow their route as much as she could, wanting to be able to fly home if she felt the need, but the clouds were too dense, and the distances too far. She had to give up and just try to sleep. At least there was the hope of seeing Biddy again at the end of it. 

\------

Biddy O'Ryan laughed at something her friend Peggy Burnett was saying, as the ferry docked on the island. She was surprised to see Rosalie Dene and Hilda there, apparently to meet them, and hailed them with a wave. 

"This must be for your benefit," she said in an aside to Peggy. "No one normally meets me on the way back from Carnbach! The privilege of being staff baby or returning old girl perhaps?"

Peggy snorted in derision. "I know everyone far too well for it to be that, besides I went to Carnbach yesterday and had no welcoming committee. They are probably just going across to Carnbach themselves!"

But the pair didn't join the returning ferry, and it turned out to be Biddy they were waiting for, after all. Rosalie linked arms with a curious Peggy Burnett, and Hilda dropped back to walk with Biddy. 

"It seems we are to have a new young pupil this term , all the way from Australia. She sounds... challenging ... Con Stewart seemed to think that perhaps you may already know of her or the family?" began Hilda. 

Biddy looked puzzled, unable to think of any link between her, Australia and Con Stewart, and never dreaming that Emerence would be sent to school at all, let alone one half way across the world.

Seeing that Biddy had no idea about the situation, Hilda carried on in a slightly less irritated tone. She had wondered briefly whether her young history mistress had forgotten, or been afraid to pass on a message, but she was clearly as much in the dark on the matter as the rest of them "I had a telegram today from a Mr Hope, of Manly, Sydney, about his daughter, Emerence..." 

What reaction Hilda had expected she wasn't quite sure. The way that Biddy stopped stock still and gaped at her was a not an encouraging sign. 

"Oh dear," she said, turning to face the younger mistress. "That face does not suggest that her father is exaggerating in his description of Emerence. Tell me the worst"

Biddy closed her mouth, opened it again, then closed it, looking worried. 

"I don't know if I can, you see I promised never to tell anyone... But, surely it's impossible... Emerence Hope ?! At the Chalet School. How on earth is that going to work?"

Hilda was rapidly becoming tempted to refuse entry to this girl. Biddy was famously unflappable, and for her to be so shocked, there must be something truly unusual about this situation. She aired her concerns, suggesting that they send Emerence elsewhere, but Biddy shook her head. 

"You say that she has already been sent on an airplane to London?" she queried. "If that is the case, I really think that the only place that she, and those around her, will be safe will be here. I ... Oh, I wish I knew what to do ... I think ... I think I will have to ask Mr Hope to let me tell you everything, I just can't see how we will manage otherwise..."

Leaving her headmistress in frustrated confusion, Biddy hurried off to the School to telephone Australia, forgetting Hilda's presence completely. 

The puzzled head followed on behind, totally out of her depth for the first time in a long time. What on earth was so terrible about Emerence Hope ?

\-----------

A short while later, Biddy returned from a lengthy phone call, and asked Hilda to call in Matey and Rosalie Dene, along with any available staff who might have to deal with Emerence one on one, refusing to give any details until they were all together. 

Finally, she was ready to start. She took a deep breath and looked around at them all. 

"When you hear what I have to tell you, you are all going to think that I am ... At best confused, more likely completely mad" she began.


	9. Chapter 9

It took some time to tell the story, and Biddy had the rare privilege of seeing both Matey and Hilda completely at a loss, not to mention the comically speechless faces of other members of staff. 

"As you know, I had only gone to Australia to support my university friend Mavis in her last year. Emerence turned up in the house all the time, and I began to get to know her informally. She was interested in learning about Europe, and talking to her was a good distraction from having to watch Mavis get more and more fragile." Biddy had explained

"It wasn't until some time later that I realised that they lived 20 miles away! Emerence would just turn up and I assumed she lived nearby..."

She shook her head with a smile at how shocked she had been to realise how far Emerence had been coming every day to visit her. 

"But she can run so fast that 20 miles is nothing to her. She used to wander all around the place, and their sheep run was huge. Hundreds of Acres. When they were at their summer home in Manly she would swim for miles instead. She almost NEEDS the exercise, much more so that even the most active of the girls we have here."

Peggy Burnett made a mental note of this, determined to find ways to give Emerence the exercise she needed, but at present at a loss as to how this could be done without giving away the girl's secret. She realised that Biddy was speaking again.

"I found out from Mavis' mother that the Hopes were needing a governess urgently. It was only meant to be a short term favour to them, but they were so desperate for help that I had to stay. I know I told you that it was Mavis' mother that asked me to stay, but I when I left, I had promised not to reveal Emerence's secret, or that I had been her governess, so I had to make it seem as though I had stayed with Mavis' family the whole time"

She gave them some more examples of Emerence's powers, and then waited for a reaction, sure that there would be more questions. 

"But.... Surely..." said Rosalie "Surely Biddy, you can't really mean she is that strong, that fast... It isn't possible... Is it?"

The other were still speechless, even Miss Annersely. Hilda was missing Nell Wilson more than ever. She was sure that if Nell were here, she would be able to confirm that superhuman powers were not biologically possible. Or perhaps give a rational reason that didn't involve the suggestion of extra-terrestial or supernatural forces being involved. 

"I couldn't believe it myself to begin with." said Biddy. "But in fact, that isn't even the strangest thing ... I told you that a few years ago, when I was still her governess, she could hover above the ground, now it appears that she can... Oh I can't believe that I am saying this... Mr Hope says that she can fly ..."

Matey finally seemed to snap out of her shocked silence. 

"No." she said. "I'm not having any girl under my care flying about. It can't be good for the health. A bad example for the younger girls too ..."

Biddy looked at her strangely, before realising that this was simply Matey still processing. There had never yet been a girl who had beaten Matey, but dealing with flying teenagers was one thing even Matey might find difficult to work out how to control. Biddy had every faith that she would manage, she had never known anything keep Matey down for long

"Mr Hope assures me that she knows very well not to show her powers, and I do know she won't deliberately use her strength against people. She rarely forgets now, apparently" said Biddy. 

She had a soft spot for the wild little girl, and she didn't like to be implying that Emerence was dangerous or aggressive. However the very fact of that unconsciously added "now" made her listeners nervous. It spoke volumes for the fact that Emerence had not always kept things under control in Biddy's experience. 

"I'm just worried that she may be too much for us," said Miss Slater "What about the risk to staff or students if she gets out of control ? After all no middle is perfect!"

Biddy had thought long and hard about how much information to share. Mr Hope had reassured her that the fire had been an accident, but he had been honest with her that his daughter could still be a law unto herself when she chose. She had herself come to the decision that the safety of the staff and other girls had to come first. 

"She confessed to me once that covering her eyes seemed to make her normal strength, I really would rather that that knowledge stayed between us, if that is possible" she said, following with an explanation that she hadn't told anyone about this, as it had been like a confidence to a friend by Emerence. Biddy hated having to break that confidence, but if Emerence lost control and was discovered it would be a disaster for the girl. She had to make sure that the school could protect her.

Biddy had already been warned by Mr Hope that if she were discovered, Emerence would probably be just as interesting to the British Government as to her own, not to mention her abilities being of interest to criminals.

She trusted the people in the room. They would never use a form of force against a child except in exceptional circumstances. So she explained about the covering of eyes, but asked them not to let Emerence know that they knew.

She hesitated about telling them about Emerence's other weakness

Biddy didn't want to share the information about the lilies too openly, in case it became possible for outsiders to hurt the girl. Mr & Mrs Hope didn't really know how much lily essence would just provide a means of control, and how much might seriously injure Emerence. It wasn't worth the risk. 

So Biddy merely mentioned " a serious allergy" to the flowers. She would talk to Matey and Hilda alone about how bad that "allergy" was, in case there was anything with lily perfume in the school. 

Rosalie Dene said slowly. "You say that Emerence will only do what she wants. How on earth are we to work with that in a school environment?"

Biddy pulled a face. "It's hard to explain. She has never learnt to concentrate, so she finds lessons hard. But the unfortunate thing is that she will tend towards not respecting someone or something, and you can't make her move in a view without being ... Well, just as pig headed and stubborn as she is ! She's not BAD, as such, just not used to interacting with other people. If she knows WHY, she will usually do as you ask."

They understood, but still wondered how on earth to deal with her. Rosalie asked whether that meant they should turn a blind eye to some minor infringements until Emerence had settled in. 

Biddy considered this carefully. She wasn't really sure herself. She could also see from the expressions on their faces that they were still worried. In fact, all of the women there seemed as though the more they learnt about this girl, the less they felt they knew how to handle her. 

"No," Biddy said eventually. "She is so used to inconsistency from her parents on discipline matters, that unless we give her rules from the start she won't ever follow them. In fact, because we can't always be explaining everything, we will have to find a way to make her understand that she has to obey rules even without knowing WHY. But I never managed that myself, so how we do that, I don't know! "

Peggy Burnett spoke up at this point. "Do you think that we need to be stricter with her than the other girls?" and Biddy shook her head. 

"Noooo..." she said, trying to work out how to phrase what she wanted to say. "She would pick that up as injustice, which would allow her in her own internal rule system, to ignore you for other things. All I mean really is be consistent and firm with her. She... She's a bit like Mary Lou in a way..."

They all were totally confused now. Mary Lou? Biddy explained her thoughts a bit more. 

"When I came to the school, plenty of people were quick to tell me that Mary Lou had been brought up by adults, and therefore she talks to us as if they were contemporaries. In any other girl it would be cheek. But in Mary Lou it isn't, she doesn't know she is doing it."

They nodded. Mary Lou was well known for coming out with the most surprising things. But as had been said many a time - It wasn't cheek, it was just Mary Lou! 

"Well Emerence is a bit like that. She has had only herself and mainly adult companions. She has been able to fend for herself since she was very tiny. If she doesn't see why she should do something, she won't, and she won't hesitate to answer back about it."

Miss Slater particularly was dismissive of this. "I don't give Mary Lou special treatment, and she gives me respect, I intend on doing the same with this youngster."

Biddy frowned. Miss Slater did have a tendency to favourites, and anti-favorites. Biddy could see the young australian falling into the second category. She felt frustrated with what she was trying to explain. 

"She will appear rude... but while we can't allow her any slack, it IS important to remember that she has had to think for herself for years, in a way that many of our girls haven't. They have had boundaries provided that tell them how to interact with others. Emerence hasn't had those rules ever apply to her. "

Hilda nodded, thinking back to issues that the school had had with a young Cornelia, and of other girls who had had difficulties due to poor early training. She understood what the young history mistress was trying to explain. 

Biddy continued, determined to do the best she could for Emerence.

"She will disobey you, quite casually, if she thinks you are wrong, she can't help it. In just the same way Mary Lou can't help talking to adults as if she already is one. But it isn't quite the same as disobedience from other girls, although she can't be allowed to get away with it, obviously."

Hilda decided to add her support, Biddy was clearly struggling to get her message across. She spoke with that authority that had made her such a good Head for so many years. 

"She cannot be allowed to misbehave, but I do see what you mean, Biddy. I think we will have to be careful to be very consistent with her." she said, looking significantly at Miss Slater. "The comparison with Mary Lou is a good one, in both cases upbringing IS relevant."

Miss Slater coloured but didn't respond. The Head didn't push the point, although she was aware of Miss Slater's habits. She merely continued giving her point of view about the young Australian. 

"If problems occur, I would just firmly point out the mistake to her, and if it is appropriate, make a clear and fair punishment, and move on. We can expect storms with Emerence I feel. However it does sound as if, even if she is naughty, he will not necessarily be doing it deliberately to challenge, in the way that other girls might. After all, it will be hard for her to understand why she has to do things just because a mistress tells her to do so, if barely anyone has enforced discipline before."

Hilda decided that they were best to stop the discussion at that point, they would know more once the girl had arrived. 

"Thank you for all your help and advice Biddy. We will all have to learn how to handle her, but you have given us a good starting point. This is an ... unusual situation, to say the least, but the Chalet School has never been one to avoid a challenge."

She paused and then decided the rather worried looking staff needed a bit more encouragement. Burying her own misgivings, she continued. 

"It sounds as though Emerence will be one of our biggest challenges, but we will be equal to it. If we teach her nothing else in her time with us, we need to give her skills to be able to cope in the wider world. Her parents won't be around to shield her forever."

The little meeting broke up, and they went off to their individual tasks. Hilda went to the window and looked out. She finally made a decision. It was an expense, but she would pay it out of her own pocket if necessary. 

She went to the telephone and asked for a number in Switzerland. 

"Nell? Are you there? I need your advice about a new girl we are to have. Are you sitting down? Well..."

A short conversation later, she felt a little better. Nell had been incredulous, and asked whether it was an out of season April Fool. But once she had understood, she had surprised Hilda with the view that it was perfectly possible in terms of the current scientific views. With the way that research into biology and space travel were improving on earth, and the suggestion that there may be other cultures elsewhere in space, there was no reason to assume that Emerence's situation was anything sinister or supernatural. Nell was quite excited at the idea once she had got over her surprise. 

Hilda only felt slightly reassured, but at least Nell's enthusiasm showed her the positive side of this challenge. She busied herself with preparations for the coming term and put Emerence Hope to the back of her mind for now.


	10. Chapter 10

Biddy waited at the airport arrivals area, and scanned the passengers coming out carefully, slightly unsure whether Emerence would have changed or not. After all, it had been a few years since she had seen her.

The sight of a small flaxen haired head told her that this was not the case. Emerence looked the same as she had at 9, despite the fact that she must be nearly 14.

Obviously the smartly dressed school mistress in her twenties looked different to the young governess just out of her teens that Emerence remembered, for the girl walked straight past her, and stood indecisively in the main hall.

Emerence was feeling grubby and irritable after the long hours cooped up, and was desperate for any form of exercise. She was just deciding that she would go outside and see if there was anywhere she could go for a run or swim, since this school had obviously not sent anyone to meet her. She didn't feel like flying, for once, having seen far too many clouds on the way over.

Just as she began to move to the door, she heard a soft familiar voice. "Emerence..."

Biddy wasn't quite sure what she expected, but the reaction was instant. As the only person who seemed to understand her spoke, Emerence whirled around and forgot herself, zipping up to Biddy at extreme speed, and throwing her arms around her.

She remembered herself enough to moderate her hug, a fact for which Biddy was extremely thankful. A full strength hug from Emerence would have almost certainly have broken her ribs. Even as it was, Biddy felt the air squashed out of her, with the force of the emotion Emerence felt but couldn't normally show.

Biddy was touched. She hadn't really been able to tell whether Emerence had cared for her as much as Mr and Mrs Hope had insisted she did. The little girl was so used to secrets that she rarely gave things away in her face or actions. But clearly she had been missed, judging by the little arms that were still holding tight, and the head buried against her.

She gently removed Emerence from around her and held her at arms length to look at her properly.

"Let me look at you, macushla" she said, scanning the sharp little face, seeing so little change it was remarkable. Perhaps whatever gave Emerence these powers also slowed her aging?

As they walked to the car, Biddy watched the girl, and her responses to things. Certainly the way that she looked and acted was far more like an 11 year old than her theoretical age of nearly 14 . She bounced around, looked in people's cars at them, chattered incessantly and carelessly, and in general seemed completely unaware of the disapproving looks of those around her.

They got into the car and started off on the long journey to the Island. Initially the girl was so fascinated by the difference between the UK and Australia that she forgot her stress and chattered away non stop. As the time in the car wore on Biddy noticed that Emerence had gone quiet. This was initially a good thing, but as the girl fidgeted more and more, Biddy finally asked her what was wrong.

"Don't know" came the reply. Emerence had never understood quite why Biddy had left, and she was loath to show her secret powers again in case that was what had made the young woman go. But she had been building in energy for all of the hours on the plane, and now this long drive was the final straw. She felt as if her muscles were almost painful with the need for use.

Biddy thought back to the little girl she used to look after, and how badly she had always expressed what she was feeling. The instincts that had made her understand the girl before gave her a clue as to what she should do.

She drove for a little longer, then turned off the main road, taking them quite far off their route into some wooded hills. Emerence looked at her in surprise as she stopped the car, then grinned in delight as Biddy told her that these woods were well hidden, and rarely were visited, as far as Biddy knew. She told Emerence to go, and be careful, but run until she had got rid of the fidgets.

Emerence didn't need to be told twice. She set herself a winding path through the trees, breaking off a few low branches with a SNAP! as she passed, and creating a whirlwind of twigs, leaves and dust.

Biddy watched the sight in amazement. Even when she had worked for the Hopes, Emerence had been fast, mow she was just a blur, barely distinguishable herself, visible only through the objects disturbed by her movements.

Biddy frowned as she saw Emerence suddenly part run, part climb up a very tall tree. She opened her mouth to tell the girl to come down, only to see her appear back on the ground beside her with a beseeching look on her face.

"The trees and hills are high enough, I could get up above the cloud before anyone saw." she said in a wheedling tone. "Have we enough time for me to go for a quick fly around? I won't go too far, and I'll make sure that I can't be seen?"

Emerence had been thoroughly drilled by her father that she must, for everyone's safety, listen to Biddy, and do as she said. He was especially fierce about the fact that she must not be caught flying.

It was against Emerence's instincts to check with anyone before action, but she trusted her old governess more than anyone in the world, and she knew that Biddy would be fair and just about things. If she said no, there was always a good reason, unlike most adults that she knew, who seemed most illogical creatures. So she waited for permission, barely able to suppress the longing she had to see more of the countryside than the top of the tree had allowed her to do.

Biddy was lost as to how to answer. On the one hand, she felt that this was too risky. But on the other, she could see that Emerence had barely burned off a fifth of her energy with the running. Making her behave had always been easier after she had made herself more tired, and she could see that Emerence would be unable to settle until more of a workout had been done.

She nodded slowly, and Emerence was off, zooming up so fast that Biddy barely saw her move. As she waited for the girl's return, Biddy sat in the car, thinking furiously.

They were going to have to find ways for Emerence to exercise, Biddy could see that. She was thankful for once that the Island had frequent mists, since that might allow opportunities for Emerence to fly without being seen.

There would have to be some thought into how to handle the girl, this the young history mistress knew already. The fact that she needed such huge amounts of exercise suggested that even more thought was needed than expected. The flying seemed likely to use up energy more efficiently, so perhaps Emerence should be encouraged to do so. The only thing that Biddy could think of right now was that there was a tall tree near to the school building, if Emerence could get to the roof, she could probably zoom up to the clouds along the line of the tree. They would have to experiment and see what worked best.

She felt a whoosh of air, and Emerence was beside her again.

"Oh Biddy, you have to see, it is so different to back home. Everything is so close together, and small. Oh come and SEE! " gabbled the girl.

Biddy was amazed to find herself quite torn. She knew that it was a risk, a huge risk, having two of then flying casually about, not to mention any possible damage to her own non invulnerable body if Emerence was careless. She felt sure that if she asked advice from others, they would say not to risk it.

But she knew that there would almost certainly be only a few chances to do something like this without likely detection. Almost without realising, she nodded. Emerence put her little head below Biddy's arm and held on tightly.

They rose, much more slowly this time, Emerence taking care not to risk dropping Biddy or catch her on any of the tree branches.

As they broke out of the cover of the trees, there was a burst of acceleration, Biddy realised that Emerence had picked up the speed to reach the clouds unseen.

Biddy gasped at the coldness, as they passed through the cloud, then again at the warmth of the sunlight above without anything blocking it.

She was simultaneously terrified and exhilarated. Through the gaps in the cloud she could see tiny patchwork villages and towns, rivers and streams winding beautiful patterns across the landscape.

All too soon, they were back on the forest floor. Biddy held onto the car for support, trying to get the feeling back in her legs. That had been amazing. She didn't even really have the words to express it.

"Are you ok?" asked Emerence with a concerned look on her face. She rarely noticed other people's feelings, but Biddy had re-secured her allegiance by understanding the fierce drive Emerence had to get exercise, to release some of the energy stored within her.

Biddy's feelings mattered, she was the only one who seemed to properly understand, and Emerence didn't want to risk her going away again. Bidddy just nodded, and smiled. The girl understood. The first time she had flown, she had been amazed by the view of the world below, and the feel of the sun, contrasting with the cold clouds all around her.

They returned to the main road, and continued on their way, both quiet with their own thoughts. The exercise had done the trick, and Emerence was no longer fidgeting. She dropped off to sleep about an hour before they arrived at Carnbach and then the Island, so the first view any of the staff had of her was just that of a tired sleepy girl, small for her age and quiet.

Biddy had to suppress a smile when she thought about the contrast they would get as soon as Emerence properly awoke the next day. She herself went to sleep thinking about flying, reliving the fantastic landscape in her dreams. Emerence was going to be a very interesting pupil of the Chalet School, that was clear.


	11. Chapter 11

Emerence woke and stared around her at the pretty curtains of her cubicle. As yet none of the other girls were here, but she could see that there would be a few of them sharing this room. She would have to be careful, in order to avoid detection.

There was the sound of a door opening, and then Biddy spoke outside the cubicle.

"Are you awake, Emerence?" she said, and on hearing that she was, Biddy continued. "You need to meet the Head, and some of the staff, to work out how best we can keep you safe"

"Keep me safe?" Emerence asked in surprise. "I don't need keeping safe! Why do you say that?"

"Get ready as I explain," said Biddy. "There's never much time in the morning at school, so you may as well start as you will have to go on."

Emerence laughed, and was about to say that hurrying was hardly an issue for her, when she realised that it might be. When she had to slow her actions down to avoid detection, it made her almost sluggish. She never could quite get a happy medium, she was either so fast she was a blur, or could barely get moving.

She 'hurried' as slowly as she could through her washing and dressing, as Biddy explained.

"We need to keep your secret, Emerence, on order to keep you safe. I know your father has spoken to you about this, but it's important. We are not that far away from having been at war, and governments at the moment are racing to get the best weapons. If they found out about you, they would try to take you away, possible experiment on you, make you do things that you don't want to do."

Biddy knew this could scare the girl, but she also knew that Emerence was very self involved. If she didn't have a strong reason for something, the chance of her making the effort to remember it was very low. She needed to be strong about this, so that Emerence paid attention. There were several girls at the school with members of the family in the armed forces. Once the information got out the chance of the secret service becoming involved would grow. If the media were to be believed, it was hard to know whether even they were on the side of good if there was a national security issue involved. On top of that, there would be many commercial uses for her powers. Carelessness by Emerence could lead to attention by groups far more sinister than Biddy even wanted to imagine.

Emerence was finally ready, the effort to be 'normal' speed making her quite slow. Biddy understood however, and made a note to explain to Matey. The girl was trying to behave, though it might not seem so to someone who didn't know how fast and careless she could be on occasion.

They set off to the head's office. Since school had not yet started, and rules were not yet in full force, Biddy took Emerence down the main stairs without a thought, afte all they were the nearest to her dormitory.

She was so focused on the meeting with the senior staff that she didn't think to explain to Emerence that this was a special occasion, that she could only use those stairs with permission. She knew that rules like that would be explained to Emerence later, just as they would to any new girl.

They went along to the Head's study and Biddy knocked.

"You should curtsey when you go in" Biddy said to Emerence, doing a quick bob herself before the door opened, to show Emerence what to do. The girl stared at her in amazement, but determined to do her best at this strange maneuver, since Biddy had asked her to do it.

Even though she trusted Biddy, she still moved herself slightly behind her as they went into the room, suddenly nervous. She had been so free to do as she pleased, and had to guard her secret so carefully, that she had not spent much time with other people than her family. She was starting to realise that there were going to be a lot of new things to learn and different people to deal with.

The voice that greeted them was one of the loveliest that Emerence had ever come across. She attempted a curtsey, although it looked quite bizarre.

Also present were a few other women, mostly dressed the same style as Biddy, except for one wearing a crisp white medical uniform. Emerence shrunk further behind Biddy, the recent discussion of medical tests at the forefront of her mind.  
Perhaps this was a trap? She checked the possible exits and was happy that she could break through a nearby window with Biddy if needed. So far the medical woman seemed to be keeping her distance, but Emerence was wary.

Introductions were made, although unfortunately the girl took little of the information in. It became clear quite quickly that Emerence was not going to be able to help them work out the best way to manage herself, there were just too many new things going on. They managed to get from her that the best exercise for her was swimming and flying and she managed to keep her tone reasonably respectful, but she really didn't know what was normal behaviour and what wasn't.

They decided that Biddy's plan about Emerence going up the tree and then flying up from there, might be their best option. If she was as quick as she seemed, there shouldn't be more than a blur from the top of the tree visible, which could easily be explained away as a bird or trick of the light.

They all were trying not to ask for a demonstration, hardly able to believe that this tiny young girl could do all of these things. Biddy realised half way through the conversation that there were doubtful looks between a few of the mistresses and decided that they needed to see for themselves.

"Why don't we go and check that the theory works?" she said. "I will take Emerence up to a box room to get out to the roof and you all go and stand outside. Emerence could on this occasion go up, come down, and then fly down from the roof to join us. That way we can see how it might look from below, and also show how it looks if she were seen."

Slightly bemused at the fact that they were actually going to encourage a girl to go onto the roof and up a tree, the group agreed that this was a good plan and went out to the front of the house, muttering between themselves about feeling the need to check it wasn't April 1st.

Biddy took Emerence back up the main stairs and then on to a box room beside the prefects room.

"Here you go," she said. "This is where I thought you could go from. Do you think it would work?"

Emerence could see it was an easy route to and then up the tree, and was itching to fly. Biddy saw this and warned her to come straight back down again, not go exploring just yet. She also made another suggestion which made the girl smile.

On the grass in front of the school, Miss Annersley, Matron and the others were looking intently at the roof and tree. Suddenly there was a slight twitch of the branches at the top if the tree, then a few minutes later a slight depression if those same branches. It was barely noticable, and Peggy Burnett wondered aloud whether it was just the wind.

Then they all gasped, and Matron had to sit down very suddenly. For coming up and over, then down through the air from the roof was not only Emerence, but Biddy. The young mistress was holding tightly onto the young girl, and grinning wickedly at the sensation they had caused.

Emerence was one big grin herself. It was so rare that she actually got to show off her powers instead of having to hide them, that Biddy's extra suggestion had been a real treat.

The staff stood open mouthed. Had their minds been possible to read at that time, there was an even split between those desperate to have a try, and those who hated the idea and felt ill even thinking of it.

Making a mental note to tell Biddy in private what she thought of such antics, Miss Annersley merely made the comment that Emerence must never do that without permission, which was quickly backed up by Matey, who had recovered enough to stand up again, but had visions of middles flying by her window on a regular basis if Emerence were not kept under firm control.

Emerence had been expecting this, after all this was already a lot of people knowing her secret. She didn't trust children her age much, they had rarely been that friendly to her. She understood the point of the rule, and was very scared about being discovered, and so was willing to obey.

\---------------

They dismissed her to the common room to read and entertain herself for a bit, and each went off on their own lawful pursuits, brains buzzing with what they had seen.

Biddy was unrepentant, and merely said that she couldn't resist the opportunity. Hilda mentally gave thanks for the fact that Joey was nowhere near, for Biddy seemed to be taking after her in providing shocks.

After Biddy had left, Hilda went to the window and looked out to the sky above. She couldn't help but wonder, secretly inside herself, what it was like up there, free and coasting among the clouds. She shook her head and told herself not to be so silly. They needed to control Emerence, not encourage her any more than they absolutely had to. It wouldn't be appropriate for the girl to start such dangerous pursuits as taking people for flights. No. It was best to say that no one be taken up with the girl. 

But even headmistresses need a little daydream every now and again.


	12. Chapter 12

Emerence was initially very calm and quiet, for her. The rules were not being strictly enforced, and she was able to follow Biddy around a fair amount. She hadn't had to use the box room to get out go for a fly, since she had been kept occupied the whole time. Peggy had given her free access to the sports equipment, and she had explored as many parts of the school as she could. She gave Matey a wide berth, still mentally associating her with medicine and the chance of being incarcerated if her secret were known. 

However now that the other girls were back the feel of the school was much more restricting and claustrophobic. The mistresses were busy and she kept being sent to her common room or dormitory. She had to be so careful all the time to slow down, that she felt as if she would burst. Well meaning girls and staff kept throwing rules and regulations at her, and she could hardly take in half of the things she was being told.

She had resisted the urge to go out while people were arriving or outside, but now seemed a good time to get rid of some energy before having to deal with even more of these new people. 

She hurried up the stairs, and bounced into what she thought was the box room Biddy had shown her, to hear the words. 

"Supervision duties-walks and prep and ..."

A collection of big girls, at least a few years older than her, were seated at a table and staring at her. An already hyped up Emerence was at that time just desperate to get to the window, looking around the room to see where she could get out. 

She had stepped into the room before she really registered the prefects. She wasn't sure at all who knew about her using the room, and had been convinced that this was the way out she needed to use. Now she wasn't so sure, if there were people in here. She was intrigued however by the sight of the girls having their meeting. 

Emerence had behaved exceptionally well for a long time, for her. She had taken being organised by Matey, ordered about by various mistresses, and made to show her powers in various situations.

If she was honest, she had had enough. These big girls were not mistresses, and unlikely to be in her form or among her friends. She wanted to get out for a fly, and they were in her way, and more than that, they were staring at her in what she saw as a most unfriendly way. 

"Hello, there!" she said "What's this place?" The big girls all stared at her. 

"Did you want anything?" Loveday asked, recovering herself with an effort. Emerence's eyes flicked quickly to the window then back. It seemed likely that these girls had not been informed of her right to be there, and she was not completely sure if she had the correct room. So she decided against admitting her true purpose. 

"Oh, nothing. I only thought I'd look round as there doesn't seem to be anything else to do and there's no one to talk to and I'm bored." she said. "I suppose you are the prefects. Mrs Mackenzie told me about you. You run the school out of lessons more or less, don't you? Keep us younger ones in order and so on."

The girls were still looking at Emerence with open mouths and most silly expressions. With Emerence, respect was earned individually, she had no concept of rules for behaving around people like prefects. She couldn't help a snigger and the words "I guess you've got a plateful to keep me in order!"

By this time, Primrose and Bride had recovered their wits. "That remains to be seen," the former said gently. "I don't know who Mrs Mackenzie may be, but if she told you anything about prefects, she'll have told you that most girls prefer to fall into the hands of the Staff rather than get across us."

Bride had been thinking. "Mrs Mackenzie is Miss Stewart who used to be our history mistress," she said. "She's Con Maynard's godmother, too. Con's called after her."

"All this has nothing to do with this child.' Loveday took charge again. 'I don't know who you are, but please remember that if you want any of us, you knock at the door and wait till you're told to come in. Now run away down to the Junior common room. Someone will be able to see to you there. We're too busy just now."

Emerence was now thoroughly irritated with being ordered about and sent to her Common Room. So she deliberately planted herself in an arm-chair that stood by the empty fireplace. "Carry on and don't mind me. I'm interested" she said calmly.

"What's your name? "a tall girl with boyish hair cut, asked bluntly. Emerence was irritated even more by the fact that the girl was eyeing her as if she had escaped from the nearest freak show.

"Emerence Anna Elizabeth Hope. What's yours?" she demanded, giving her a good stare back. Tom, for this was the name she was known by, went automatically to answer, but another girl got there first. 

"You'll find out all our names in due course,' Bride told her sweetly. 'I can see that you'll have every reason for doing so. Meantime, didn't you hear Loveday tell you to run away?"

"Of course I did. I'm not deaf."

"Then suppose you do as you're told."

Emerence gave her a look that, for cool impudence, would have been hard to beat. She had lost all of her promises to behave in the fact that she was being ordered around by so many people. After all, until recently she only had to answer to herself. She had been willing to accept the mistresses' orders and actions, as they reminded her of Biddy. But she had no intention of being bullied by these girls just because they were older. 

"You don't think I'm going to do what what's-her-name says, do you? You're only schoolgirls like me." she said. Then as they continued to look at her as if she were a bit lacking, she went even further. "A bit bigger and older and uglier, of course" she added with sublime cheek.

Bride glanced at Tom sitting next her. Tom nodded and together they rose to their feet and moved on the young lady who eyed them with sudden wariness. 

She had not realised when they were sitting down that they were quite so big. Tom stood five foot eleven in her stockinged feet and Bride was only three inches or so less. Standing one on either side of her, looking very trim and businesslike in their skirts and blouses and smartly-knotted ties, they contrived to be somewhat alarming, even to Miss Emerence Hope who was never lacking in impudence. She had small time for thought. Moving in perfect unison, they lifted her up and set her on her feet. 'Now then," Tom said. "March!"

Although she was perfectly capable of picking the two of them up, one in each hand, Emerence had enough control left to realise that most girls her size would not be able to do so. Therefore, along with her promise not to use her strength on others, she knew resistance would potentially reveal her secret. She cursed her bad mood for bringing her to this point, but was still increasingly annoyed by their attitude. So she dug her toes in. 

"Shan't!" she said briefly.

"Then we must make you. Pick her up, Bride.' Together they took her and frog-marched her firmly to the open door, through which they shot her neatly so that she was forced to take two or three steps down the corridor while they went in again. 

Primrose, who had guessed what they meant to do, was standing ready and she slammed the door and locked it.

Not that this move deprived them of Emerence quite so quickly. She was now in a towering rage. Judging by the sounds the prefects heard, she flung herself at the door, hammering on it with her fists and feet and shrieking insults at the top of her voice.

It could hardly last long, of course. The rest of the girls had been sent out for a walk before Mittagessen, as the school in imitation of old Tirol days called the midday meal; but quite a number of the Staff were about and so was Matron. That lady had been busy in the linen-room when she heard the disturbance. She might be verging on her fifties, but she was, as Tom Gay had more than once remarked, 'jolly nippy on her pins.'

Emerence had time for only half-a-dozen yells when the beloved tyrant of the school erupted round the comer, come to find out what such a noise meant. On her part, Matron had forgotten the special nature of this situation, and merely saw a child misbehaving. 

The listening prefects heard her demand in no uncertain tone, "What is the meaning of this? Stop that babyish nonsense at once and come away from that door! You have no business there." 

As she said this, Emerence raised her head and Matron saw the red glow of her eyes. Unseen by the prefects, she took a step back, then steeled herself to deal with the situation. She ran through the advice given by Biddy. She had warned that Emerence rarely got to the state of red eyes, but when she did, she was very close to losing control and forgetting to hide her strength. The girl could not be reasoned with here, in earshot of so many girls, she needed to be removed to a more private space. 

"Come with me, Emerence" she began. 

"I won't, I won't!' screamed Emerence. 'I will go in! They're nasty horrible beasts and..."

The yell that ended this sounded oddly muffled. Bride cautiously turned the key and opened the door a crack, the rest crowding round to see what was happening. 

They were treated; as many of them as could manage to get a peephole ; to the spectacle of Matron, with a swathed and kicking bundle in her arms, stalking down the corridor, extreme indignation in every line of her figure, while from the rug she had flung over Emerence issued more of those muffled howls. Emerence was furious to find herself weakened to mere human strength by the cover, and her rage was visible in her struggling and vigorous swearing. 

"She'll have Matey over if she kicks like that!" Bride said in a stage whisper. "Should we go and help?"

"Not if you don't want to be eaten without salt," Nancy said. "Here's Miss Slater, anyway. She'll sort young what's-her-name!"

Sure enough, Miss Slater uttered an exclamation and took the heaving struggling form into her own strong arms with a sharp shake that reduced the convulsions a little and the group vanished round the corner. The astounded prefects withdrew hurriedly in case anyone came and caught them 'snooping' and sat down round the table again.

"Well!" Nancy exclaimed when they were seated again. " What have we collected this time? And what have we done to deserve it, anyhow?"

"A young savage from somewhere, "Audrey Simpson replied. "Could it be the Australian child, do you think? It certainly isn't French or Belgian. I say, Anne, I'm sorry for you if that's the sort of thing you've got to tackle this term."

"I feel rather sorry for myself," Anne, the prefect for the Juniors, responded dazedly.

"It looks to me," Loveday remarked ruefully, "as if we were going to have jolly good reason to be sorry for the lot of us."

'It's the Australian child all right,' Bride said decidedly. "Didn't you hear her talk of Miss Stewart; I mean Mrs Mackenzie? She's living in Australia now ; New South Wales, I believe. But if that's a specimen of the genus Middle there, I am surprised she sent it to us. I thought she had more sense!"

"Rot!" Loveday spoke curtly. "That's no fair specimen of the Australian Middle! Well, thanks to her, we've wasted nearly twenty minutes of our time and this duties time-table has to be filled in before we finish. We'd better get on with it. Bride, can you take Monday night prep for the Junior Middles? And I'll see to the Senior Middles? Good! Then if Primrose and Madge can do Lights Out, that's so much settled. We'll finish this part and see to walks later. Tom, what about you for Tuesday Juniors?".

They continued with their lawful affairs, and put the cheeky young Emerence out of their minds. Unfortunately Emerence had been thoroughly told off by Matron and Miss Slater, something her childish mind felt a great injustice.

She had an unhealthy tendency to hold a grudge, and her dignity had been hurt by their behaviour towards her. No one treated her as a freak or an naughty child. NO ONE. She was not finished with the Prefects yet. They would pay for treating her this way. She would see to that.


	13. Chapter 13

Emerence took a long time to calm down enough for Matey to allow her to rejoin the school. Unfortunately Emerence didn't see fit to explain her need for exercise, and Matey saw only a spoilt child, and a potentially dangerous one if she was not taught some self control. She accompanied Emerence to the dining room, and had a word with Hilda about her during the meal. 

"We can't just let her just find her own way as a normal new girl" Matey said in concern. "She needs watching from the start. I hate to think there is a girl in the world that we cannot help, but I do wonder with this girl if we really can cope with her. At very least we need to get her to understand the rules that she needs to follow."

Hilda listened, and after the meal she called Mary Lou Trelawny, Vi Lucy and Doris Hill out and gave Emerence into their charge. She wished that the girls were old enough to be able to confide in them about Emerence, but apart from their youth, there were already too many people aware of Emerence. They couldn't risk the girls all knowing. 

Emerence went meekly enough with Mary Lou and the gang, only rebelling slightly when they were going for a rest. She felt sure that this would be her chance to get to that window and go for a fly, and tried to escape. However the determined way the group stopped her made her pause. She hadn't had people her own age take an interest in her before. She still was of the attitude that rules were meant to be broken, but she decided that this was not the time.   
So she went along with them to rest in deck chairs. 

Doris and Vi began to pull out the chairs while Mary-Lou marched Emerence across to the corner where they always staked their claim. When she saw the girl already settled there, Mary-Lou beamed.

'Unpacking finished? Oh, good! Look here, Verity-Anne, this is Emerence Hope from Australia and Miss Annersley said we were to look after her and show her round.'

Verity-Anne was clearly the same age as themselves, but she was a tiny creature, with long fair curls tied back from a small face whose miniature features were cut with the delicacy of a cameo. Emerence had never seen anyone so dainty and fragile-looking and when Verity-Anne smiled at her out of gentian-blue eyes and, speaking in a tiny silvery voice that just matched her appearance, said that she hoped Emerence would like England and especially the Chalet School, Emerence went down before her like a ninepin.

'Oh, I; I'm sure I shall,' she stammered.

'Here come the others with the chairs,' Mary-Lou observed. 'Come on, you two! Primrose is looking at us and I can see trouble in her eye.'

This was quite enough to make them bestir themselves and set the chairs up at top speed. They sat down and Primrose, seeing that they were settled at last, left the room after warning them that though talking was allowed today since the library was not yet open, they must not make a noise.

'What's she mean?' Emerence demanded.

'Exactly what she says,' Vi replied. 'Once library is opened we read during this time. But it doesn't begin till Monday, so most of us haven't any books and we're allowed to talk quietly.' 

'Verity-Anne always does do that,' Mary-Lou put in with a grin. 'She's about the only one of us that never gets into a row for being noisy. I say it isn't fair, 'cos she has such a soft voice naturally. It isn't because she's a goody-good, so don't think that!'

'I should think she isn't! None of us is!' Doris said rather indignantly, as if to be extra good was something disgraceful.

'Tell us about Australia, Emerence,' Vi suggested.

Mary-Lou shook her head. 'We must wait for that. The Abbess meant us to explain things to her, and this is a jolly good chance.'

'Have you ever been at school before, Emerence?' Vi asked amiably.

'Not me! I had governesses.'

'Governesses!' they exclaimed together. Doris adding, 'Oh, poor you!' 

Emerence grinned. 'None of them lasted very long.'

'Why not?' Mary-Lou demanded

'I saw to that,' Emerence informed her.

The four, who had all known steady control since babyhood, stared at her.

'Weren't your people mad with you?' Vi asked doubtfully.

'No fear! Mother thinks children should be let grow up as they like and Father did,' Emerence returned.

'I s'pose,' Verity-Anne said, 'you went on until he got sick of you and that's why they've sent you right away from Australia.'

Emerence shook her head until her thick straight crop of hair tossed madly. 'No, it was Mrs Mackenzie. She used to teach here and she raved about the place to all of us. So when; Well, when they decided I'd better go to school, they sent me here.'

'Well,' Mary-Lou said thoughtfully, 'I'll give you some advice. Don't try to drive any of the mistresses away here by doing mad things. It just won't work. They'll fire you first.'

'What did you do that put the lid on?' Doris asked with some curiosity.

'Never you mind!' Somehow, Emerence felt sure that the real truth would horrify Verity-Anne and, although she had no idea why she didn't want that small person to know, she was quite certain that she didn't.

'Well, we won't,' Mary-Lou said with decision. 'D'you hear, Doris? You're not to be a poke-nose about it. You are, you know,' she added cheerfully. 'Gran would say you were a regular curiosity box.'

'And what does she say you are?' flashed Doris.

'A perfect nuisance,' Mary-Lou told her with unimpaired calm. 'Let's tell Emerence about things, shall we? We've only ten minutes or so left, anyhow.'

'O.K.,' Vi agreed. 'What would you like to know about, Emerence?'

Emerence thought. 'I guess you'd better tell me more about the rules,' she said resignedly. 'Then I'll know where I am.'

So for the remaining ten minutes, they explained such rules as occurred to them and Emerence listened open-mouthed.

'But what a lot of rot it is!' she burst out suddenly. 'Why shouldn't we talk on the stairs and in the corridors? And whatever do we have to curtsy to the Head for?'

'Manners,' Mary-Lou said succinctly. 'As for not talking, well, the Head once asked us what we thought would happen if everyone could talk all over the shop. There's hundreds of us, r03;well two or three, anyhow. The row would lift the roof!'

'There's the bell!' cried Doris before Emerence could reply to this. 'Come on! We've got to put the chairs away and get our blazers. What shall we watch, Mary-Lou?'

'Netball. That's more fun for us. You see, Emerence, you don't play hockey until you're fourteen nor laxe until you're fifteen; but you can start netball at once if you're ten or over.' 

'Oh?' Emerence said.

'Come on with those chairs!' said a new voice as a big girl suddenly appeared. 'You people yatter too much.'

'Oh, sorry, Annis,' Mary-Lou replied. 'We're just coming.'

Annis Lovell watched them fold up the chairs and put them away, then she nodded to them and left the room while the quartette bore Emerence off to the splashery to collect blazers. There was no talking, she noticed. Not even that chatterbox, Mary-Lou, said anything until they had left the building. 

Emerence went with them to watch the netball, finding it strangely nice to be so casually included, while still feeling as though she would burst if she couldn't get some exercise soon. 

Unfortunately she had really not believed the girls about the rules being important. After all they all clearly weren't impressed by people being ' Goody Good', and Emerence didn't see the point of obeying rules just because an adult told you to do something. Adults were frequently wrong in her experience, or unable to enforce discipline. 

They went to watch the Netball, and Emerence was calmed to see Biddy O'Ryan refereeing. She had been feeling so confused with all of these rules and the fact that the girls seemed to be so set on following them. She also had been afraid that she would barely see Biddy, as the history mistress had been very busy recently. 

They went over to watch Hockey towards the end of the games trials, and Emerence was struck by the friendliness of Clem Barrass, an older girl towards Mary Lou. She wondered whether they were relatives, cousins or sisters perhaps. 

On the way upstairs, Emerence began a remark about Clem, but was severely hushed by the other four.

'We told you not to talk on the stairs,' Mary-Lou said.

'What awful rot!' Emerence began.

'Who's that talking?' came a stem voice from the top.

'It's the new girl, Emerence Hope. She doesn't know the rules very well yet, Bride,' Mary-Lou promptly piped up.

'Then hurry up and see that she learns them,' Bride retorted. 'Quiet, you people down there! There's no need to come up like a herd of wild horses!' 

Emerence recognised one of the big girls who had been so dismissive of her earlier. She was tempted to give a rude reply, but the others bundled her off to her dormitory and she had to concentrate on getting ready slowly enough to avoid detection. 

She was inclined to be scornful at the way the girls acted around the prefects, and couldn't understand why people would rather 'get across' a mistress than a prefect. After all mistresses could cause you much more of a problem surely. In reality she wasn't really that concerned about the mistresses either, after all, she still felt that it was up to them to earn her respect. 

She was going to have to learn the hard way that rules were not always meant to be broken.


	14. Chapter 14

Emerence managed to cope for the next few weeks, escaping to the roof and going for a fly whenever possible. Controlling herself in these much more restricted surroundings was possible as long as she was not too full of energy. 

However things were soon to become much harder for her, as gossip began to filter across from Carnbach that there must be a hidden military base nearby, for people were seeing cloud streams as if a rocket had gone up. Hilda had to take this seriously, and had a long talk with Emerence about limiting her flying and only going up after dark. Since she was around the other girls for so much of the evening, this became a nightmare for Emerence to escape as often as she needed. 

Although Peggy Burnett did her best to help her find other forms of exercise, classed as "remedials" none of them really worked to relax Emerence enough. She was in a constant state of frustration and bordered on rude to prefects and mistresses alike. 

Perhaps her greatest shield was the watchfulness of Mary-Lou and Co., in whose form she had been placed. They were far enough from being little angels, but they had no mind to have the form disgraced by any new girl. Furthermore, the four who more or less led the rest by the nose had been put in charge of her and they looked after her to the best of their ability. They were unable to do much about the way she spoke to the folk they were accustomed to address with a certain respect, but they contrived to keep her from going too far.

However, even with all this, it was hardly to be expected that such a born imp would reform at once and the Head waited, with more uneasiness than she would have cared to admit to anyone, for the explosion.

All continued in reasonably harmony until three weeks after term began. Emerence had been able to get out at night a few times, returning in time for bedtime with vague murmurs of seeing staff about work. 

However on that Sunday it began to rain so heavily that she could not get out without being drenched, which would have led to too many explanations, as would going up to the box room with her raincoat. 

What didn't help was the fact that the other girls were also feeling the effect of the weather. The school was accustomed to any amount of fresh air and exercise and when the weather prevented this, the girls were apt to grow fratchety.

Clem Barrass, getting out of bed on the Wednesday and looking out of the window at the great puddle in the middle of the front lawn while the rain came lashing down and the wind howled mournfully through the half-bare branches of the trees, growled to herself. She had hoped for at least a walk this afternoon since, even if it had cleared up during the night, the playing-field would be like a morass and there could be no hope of games. Clearly, though, the rain meant to continue and with the wind that was blowing, they would be kept indoors again.

'Oh, hang the weather!' Clem said crossly to herself as she caught up her towels and made for the bathroom.

Emerence woke with a start at the words, and inwardly groaned. Glancing at her watch she decided that she had to at least get down early to the gym, lock the door and do some circuits. Peggy had arranged for some bean bags filled with emery powder for her, so that she could do at least a little weightlifting as she ran. She scurried through her dressing; intent on exercising the fidgets out of herself, and shot off down the corridor as slowly as she could make herself go. 

Meanwhile, Clem stalked back to her cubicle in a bad temper, which was not improved later by the discovery that Emerence Hope had elected this morning to consider she had stripped her bed when she had tossed the clothes back over the foot and left her pyjamas on the floor in a tangle with her dressing-gown.

As prefect of the dormitory, Clem was responsible for seeing that every cubicle was left in the exact early-morning order that Matron preferred, so Clem chased Emerence down the corridor and told her to come back.

Emerence turned back with a grumble that there was always something wrong and Clem led the way to her cubicle.

'You've not tossed up the curtains, nor stripped your bed properly,' Clem said. 'And look at your pajamas! Hurry up and do it while I finish the rounds.'

She left the gentleman's garret which was Emerence's cubicle and went to inspect Prudence Dawbarn's, that young woman having a tendency to shirk all dormitory work if she got half a chance. 

As Clem had expected, her pyjamas were on the floor and the dressing-gown tossed down on the bureau instead of being hung on its peg. The dormitory prefect had to waste three minutes before Prudence sulkily cleared up, muttering to herself about 'old maids' fussiness!' 

That three minutes was enough for Emerence, who had also got out of bed on the wrong side and was in an even worse temper than Clem.

'I don't see why I should do as Clem Barrass says,' she thought. 'She's not even a proper prefect. I jolly well won't; and if she doesn't like it as I've done it, she can do it herself. She's a lot too bossy!'

Emerence by now was desperate, and could only think of the minutes ticking away and shortening her time in the gym. She zipped out of the room and went zooming down the stairs. 

She was so intent on making it to the gym that not only was she almost flying, but she went down the main stairs, not the back stairs which all younger members of the school were supposed to use. 

To reach the back stairs, she had to pass the head of the main staircase and, in her present mood, she decided that it was nothing but fussy nonsense to stop them using the big staircase. She just wasn't going to put up with it! She was as good as any mistress or prefect of them all and she would just use it! 

Unfortunately for Emerence, Miss Dene came out of the study just in time to see the performance. She had been talking to Hilda about the Australian girl's behaviour, and in consultation with Biddy, a plan had been made. 

"She isn't getting enough exercise, but that is only half the problem" Hilda had said seriously to the little group of mistresses. "She has no idea of self control, nor that she does have the mental capacity to get through periods where she has to be still. We are going to have some difficulties with her along the way, I'm sure, but if she can just learn a little self discipline and ability to manage herself, we will have done that girl a great favour."

Now, coming straight from the meeting, Miss Dene saw the girl almost giving herself away by floating down the stairs. She couldn't call attention to Emerence's flying, there were too many of the girls about, but she could bring her to account over the stairs. 

"Emerence Hope!' she said. 'Don't you know the rule about the stairs?"

"Yes; but I'm not taking any notice of it," Emerence told her coolly. Miss Dene eyed her with a boding look. "Rules are made to be kept. Go to your own staircase; and go up it and then come down again; and quietly,' the secretary told her.

"Not me! What d'you take me for?"

Rosalie's eyes flashed at this calm defiance, but she had her temper well under control. She laid a hand on the small shoulder nearest her and steered the young lady round in the direction of the school staircase. Biddy had told them of Emerence's own rule about not reacting with force if the person was reasonable, and Rosalie was hoping that this was truly the case. 

"Take your hands off me!" Emerence flung at her.

Rosalie merely tightened her grip. "Are you going to do as you're told without a fuss? Or must I make you?" she asked with a certain awful quietness in her tone that made Emerence quail in spite of herself.

She might have given in, however sulkily, but at that moment a thoroughly angry Clem in search of her missing lamb appeared. That was enough for Emerence. She jolly well wasn't going to let Clem see her knuckle under to anyone!

"You just try it on!" she told Miss Dene with all the impudence she could muster in voice and manner.

Clem's eyes nearly fell out of her head and her mouth opened and shut like a stranded cod's. 

Miss Dene simply said "March" to Clem, and became even more decided in Emerence having to be taught a lesson.   
Emerence was getting more and more tempted to resist her, but she just couldn't quite shake the feeling that Biddy would think badly of her for it if she did pull away. 

Rosalie propelled Emerence to the foot of the stairs, telling the girls who were coming down them to hurry. She told Emerence to go up and down again. The girl refused, and was told that she would have to stay there until she did. 

Emerence was in a quandary. She had an early session with Miss Burnett in the remedial room , and she needed the exercise badly. She would certainly get into fearful trouble if she kept that lady waiting and she rather admired Miss Burnett who had somehow managed to capture her with her crispness, easy, fluent movements and excellence at games; about the only lesson Emerence enjoyed at present. . . .At the same time, having defied Miss Dene so far, the young woman was much too proud to give in. 

She clenched her hands and stood stockstill, saying nothing. Miss Dene watched her for a minute or two. "Oh, very well," she said when it was plain that Emerence had no intention of obeying her. 

She glanced round and saw Bride Bettany who was passing at the moment. 'Oh, Bride! I want you!'

Bride came up to them, giving Emerence a look that boded no good for that young person. 'Yes, Miss Dene?'

'Will you go to my office and bring me a stool and the book you will find on the table by the window?'

Bride did as she was bid, and Miss Dene settled herself down to wait. Emerence was totally confused by this calm treatment. She contemplated asking Miss Dene to get Biddy, for she felt that perhaps the secretary didn't understand that rules like this were for the girls, not Emerence too when she needed to get somewhere. But even as she thought of this she realised that Biddy would most certainly not agree with this jumbled logic. 

'But she went down those stairs with me on the first day' thought Emerence, then had to admit to herself that really that didn't mean anything. After all that was before term started properly, and even then was only the one time. 

\------------

From all round came the sounds of morning practising. Some of the girls went past at intervals. Emerence rather expected that Miss Burnett would arrive to demand her in the remedial room but no Miss Burnett appeared. She had met Bride Bettany in the corridor and asked if she had seen anything of Emerence.

"She's been playing Miss Dene up,'" Bride said briefly. "She's standing at the foot of our staircase and Miss Dene is sitting there, too, reading. Judging by what Clem Barrass has had to say," she added with a sudden grin, "I should think the little ninny got up prepared for trouble. "

Miss Burnett, who had been a Senior in the school when Bride was a junior and who knew Clem by this time, chuckled. 'Oh, very well. I can wait. Far be it from me to interfere with any wholesome discipline anyone may be administering to that young demon. I can get on with something else and Emerence can come to me in her free time."

\--------

Emerence would actually have been happy to go for remedials in her free time, if she had known that the option was there. She saw her time with Miss Burnett and chance of getting real exercise done being lost, and became quite convinced that she would never be able to make it back up. This made her feel even more out of sorts with the world. After all, she was doing her best, trying to exercise the fidgets out of herself as much as possible. These people needed to understand that she wasn't going to be pushed around. She became even more sure of the injustice of it all, and determined that she would not give in.


	15. Chapter 15

The bell rang for Frustuck, as the school called breakfast, and there followed the sounds of feet marching steadily down the back corridor to the dining-room. There also came the smell of coffee and bacon and Emerence suddenly realised that she was hungry. 

She moved a little, eyeing the narrow space on either side of Miss Dene hopefully, and decided with dismal conviction that she hadn't a chance of slipping past. As for Miss Dene, she seemed to be deaf. She turned a page and went on with her reading; or so Emerence thought. 

Actually, she was watching her prisoner out of the corner of her eye. If the girl tried to dive past her, the chances were that the stool would be upset and Rosalie Dene had no mind to be involved in an undignified spill.

The dining-room being at the back of the house, they could hear nothing until the door opened and the girls came out to troop upstairs and attend to their cubicles. At sight of the pair at the foot of the stairs, the leaders stopped short just as Miss Annersley, who had come round by the other side, also appeared.

"Use the main staircase, girls," she said. "Lead on, Loveday."

Emerence nearly popped with idignation at the fact that now EVERYONE but her seemed to be being allowed to use the main staircase! So it WASN'T a hard and fast rule. She felt sure that Miss Annersley would correct Miss Dene for her actions now. 

When the last girl had vanished Miss Annersley came forward and spoke.

"What has happened, Miss Dene?"

Miss Dene explained, adding, "I have told Emerence that she stays here until she chooses to obey me."

"Quite right! But a naughty little girl is no reason why you should be deprived of your breakfast. I sent it back to the kitchen with a word to Karen who is keeping it hot for you. She will bring it to you in the dining-room and I will stay with Emerence for the present." She added a word or two in French to this.

Miss Dene nodded. "Yes, certainly. Thank you, Miss Annersley. I won't be long."

"Please don't hurry to the point of indigestion," the Head said, laughing, as she sat down in Miss Dene's place.

Miss Dene smiled as she went to seek her belated meal. 

\------------

Emerence's hope that Miss Annersley might see reason was dashed by this little exchange, and she felt so angry that she almost wanted to fly over the two of them, out of the door and never return. The only thing that kept her from doing that was her deep fear of discovery, and also of losing Biddy. 

She stood and fumed at this treatment. It was all so quiet and yet still forceful. She wasn't used to such treatment, and just didn't know what to do with it. She felt like screaming and shouting, but couldn't take the risk that if she let her anger out, she might set the place on fire with her eyes, or hover. All she could cope with was dampening her feelings by being sulky. 

Miss Dene came back twenty minutes later, bearing a glass of milk with her which Miss Annersley took and offered to Emerence.

"Drink that, Emerence," she said gravely.

"Don't want it."

"I'm afraid that doesn't matter. I have told you to drink it and you must obey me."

"Shan't!"

Hilda paused. The beginning of the red glow in Emerence's eyes was quite disconcerting, even knowing that it was a side effect of the girl's emotions. She couldn't risk Emerence realising that she was nervous about trying to make the girl take the milk, and almost wished that she had not made it a direct order. Now she had to win this silly little battle. But how? She thought for a moment, then decided that she would have to involve Matey, and asked Miss Dene to fetch her. 

Matron arrived, looking her grimmest.

"What is this, Miss Annersley? She won't drink her milk? Oh, very well. May I have it?"

She took the milk and advanced on Emerence who was beginning to quake. "Now then, Emerence, either you drink this without any more nonsense or I shall put it into you. Which is it to be?" 

Matey herself was inwardly hoping against hope that Emerence would still be scared enough of her being medical to not challenge this. 

Emerence opened her lips to reply, but then was hit by the memory of that day when Matron picked her up covered in the blanket and carried her away. She looked around, and sure enough, Matey had a pile of blankets nearby. Emerence hated the loss of power when her head was covered, and didn't want it to become common knowledge that this was a weakness. She didn't know whether Matey had discovered this by accident, or whether all of the staff knew, but she couldn't take the risk. 

She took the milk and drank it without more ado. Matron removed the glass and herself, while Miss Dene, who had armed herself with some knitting, sat down again.

People going past stared curiously at them, but no one spoke. Emerence felt better since she had had that glass of creamy milk. If she had dared, she would have made a bolt for it; but not upstairs, which lay open to her. She had been told to go and had said she wouldn't and that settled that so far as she was concerned. 

The morning wore on, and still Miss Dene kept to her post. Emerence could hear the rest of the school going about it's daily business. Although she wasn't tired, the view of the sky beginning to clear out of the window was tantalising, and made the wait even harder. All she wanted to be doing was to be out there flying. She asked if she could sit down, sinve at least then she couldn't see out of the window, and Miss Dene agreed readily, encouraged by the fact that the girl had asked rather than just done it without permission. 

"Yes, you may. Sit down where you are; unless you are prepared to give up this silly defiance and do as you're told," she said. "Why don't you, Emerence? It's so absurd to keep yourself there when just by being obedient, you could go and join the others."

Emerence flushed but said nothing. She sat down on the stairs and the long morning began. Miss Dene finished one sleeve of her jumper and cast on the other. The first lesson had ended; so had the second. Break came and went and still Emerence seemed no more prepared to give in than she had ever been.

The maids, forced to go round by the main staircase, eyed her with deep dislike as they went past. They were busy enough without having so many extra steps added to their work. The school at large took no apparent notice of the pair, though Mary-Lou, going to the Staff room on an errand, gave Emerence an exceedingly chilly look which made that young woman redden again.

Then Miss Stephens, the geography mistress, arrived to relieve Miss Dene and that lady went off to attend to the morning's post, which had, perforce, been neglected all this time. Miss Stephens had brought a folding-desk with her. She set it up and sat marking Upper Fifth's work without saying a word to the young rebel on the stairs.

When the bell rang for the end of the lesson, her place was taken by Mdlle de Lachennais, who sat preparing sewing for Emerence's own form until the end of morning school, by which time Emerence knew that she must stay where she was until she did choose to yield. What impressed her most about this novel treatment was the fact that no one had scolded her. On the few occasions when she had roused her mother, she had been sharply scolded. She could remember one occasion when she had been shaken until she hardly knew which end of her was uppermost. Mrs Hope was not always consistent in her dealings with her only child, whatever she might preach to other mothers. But here there had been no real scolding and certainly no one had attempted to shake her. It had been just this silent waiting until she did as she was told.

'I b'lieve,' she thought, 'that they'll keep me here all day if I don't do as Miss Dene said. Oh, but I can't! I just can't give in when I've said I won't.'

She sat playing with her girdle. A sudden thought struck her. They had netball that afternoon and if she didn't give in, then she must miss it; and she did so love it!

'I can't ; I just can't miss it!' she thought wildly. 'Oh, what shall I do?; 

Emerence was torn. She wanted to play netball, even if she couldn't catch up on the remidial session with Miss Burnett. The games mistress had become dear to Emerence's mixed up little heart, for understanding about the huge drive within her for exercise to calm her body. To miss two opportunities to see one of her heroes was just too much. 

Miss Dene came along at that moment and Mdlle gathered up her work and departed. Emerence could hear the girls in the splasheries. Then the gong sounded for Mittagessen. Miss Dene had brought her little portable typewriter and was typing rapidly. She paid no heed to the gong, but worked on steadily. The girls could be heard going to the dining-room. Then the door shut.

Emerence was reminded by the sound that she had as yet not been to the bathroom that morning. Another dilema, for the girls did not talk about such things, so she wasn't sure how would be polite to ask for a bathroom break. In addition, she hated having to admit to this weakness of her body. But once the thought was there she felt as though she would burst if she didn't go soon. 

Miss Dene was considering the wording of a sentence when a meek voice asked, 

"Please... Please may I go and wash?"

Rosalie Dene looked up. "Yes; I'll take you to the splashery. Come along!"

She stood up, but Emerence remained crouching on the stairs. Her head suddenly went down on her arm and she began to cry.

"I'm t-tired of s-sitting he-ere!" she sobbed.

"Well, you know what to do if you want to stop," Miss Dene reminded her. Then she added in more kindly tones, "What a silly girl you are, Emerence! Here you've wasted an entire morning just because first you deliberately break a rule and then refuse to submit to authority. Come, stop crying and go quietly up and down the stairs and we'll say no more about it."

"N-no one ever t-treated me like th-this b-before!" wept Emerence.

"I hope you will see to it that no one ever needs to treat you like this again," the secretary retorted bracingly. She stooped and lifted the child to her feet. "Now then, off you go! Be quick and you won't be so very late for Mittagessen."

Emerence was conquered for the time being. Slowly she climbed the stairs, mopping her eyes as she went. Then she came down again, still gulping, but feeling better. Miss Dene had closed her typewriter and folded up the desk. One of the girls would take it away later.

"Run along to the splashery,' she said, 'and give your face a good sluice. You'll feel all right then. Mind you go straight to the dining-room."

Rosalie paused, and then said quietly and gently to the girl "After that, just this once, you can go out of the box room during the day. There are enough clouds that you should be hidden. Wrap up well though, and be back in time for the afternoon lesson."

Emerence looked at her with tears in her eyes. Miss Dene did understand ! She had been feeling as if there were no way she would cope with the afternoon without some sort of exercise. She nodded and went off to eat. 

And that was the end of it. At least, it was all from Miss Dene who never again referred to the matter in any way. Emerence still had to face Clem, who told her what she thought of her in no uncertain tone. Matron also had a few words to say on the subject of her babyish behaviour over the milk. Matron implied that such behaviour was beneath the youngest of the St Agnes' juniors, and further told her that if such a thing occurred again she would be sent to St Agnes for a week.

Emerence guessed that if such a thing did happen, her own crowd would never let her forget it, so she inwardly vowed to do nothing to bring it about. 

As it was, the Head had strictly forbidden any remarks to her or at her about the morning's performance, so, much to her surprise, she heard nothing about it from her own form.

Finally, at six o'clock she had to go to Miss Annersley, who impressed on her that rules were made to be kept and that there was a good reason for every rule. Emerence was feeling herself again by this time. "But why can't we use the front stairs?" she demanded.

"First," Miss Annersley said, looking at her seriously, "because in most cases, it is out of your way. Secondly, because the front stairs are carpeted and if you girls were for ever running up and down them, I'm afraid there would soon be no carpets left. Lastly, those stairs come down into the main hall. We couldn't have girls running all over when visitors were coming. So you see for all reasons it is wiser to keep you to the back stairs."

Emerence nodded thoughtfully. "I see. But why didn't Miss Dene tell me all that instead of making me stay there the whole morning?" she added.

"Because you were rude and defiant and flatly disobeyed her. No mistress worth her salt would put up with that sort of thing. Orders are orders, Emerence, and you must obey them. If you don't there will always be punishment; for deliberate disobedience, I mean. In future, though, if you can't see the reason for a rule find someone to explain it to you before you decide to break it. But if you take the trouble to think it out for yourself, you ought to be able to find the reason without that. Now you may go back to your prep. Please don't be so silly again." 

Emerence trailed to the door and bobbed the curtsy it had taken all this time to impress on her was a definite 'must' "'l'll do it; if I can remember," she said.

Then she sidled out and Miss Annersley was left to laugh over that last speech and think it would be a nice little story to add to her letter to Jo.


	16. Chapter 16

Emerence still struggled with managing her energy, but the episode with Miss Dene on the stairs had made her resolve to do her best to keep those rules that she could remember. She would look for Biddy O'Ryan, or Miss Burnett when confused, and ask them the reason for the rules. 

Peggy Burnett also found a few other options for getting rid of Emerence's energy, one of which was to block off any way to let others see into the gym, and allow the girl fly around in there. It wasn't the same as being out and free in the clouds, but it helped. 

Miss Burnett also started Emerence on carrying heavy objects while she flew, to increase the energy she had burned. It began with just a belt with weights, then developed until very soon the girl was carrying the vaulting horse in one hand and the springboard in the other. 

This was good for Emerence's concentration as well, since she had to be sure not to let anything hit any other apparatus, or worse, Miss Burnett. The encouragement and challenge made her feel good inside, as if she had worth, and her admiration and respect for Miss Burnett came almost to rival that for Biddy O'Ryan. 

Emerence settled down as well as she could to her schoolwork, but her brain was just running at too fast a rate to concentrate well, and she rarely reached more than a few places above bottom in the form lists. 

One day, soon after the stairs incident, she was staring into space in prep, completely at a loss as to how to answer a question. She noticed Biddy standing in the next room, and looked up to see what was going on. The mistress seemed to simply be taking a coaching session with some of the senior girls, so Emerence looked back down at her work and did the best that she could. 

It wasn't until the bell rang for the end of prep and she was packing up her books that it hit her what had happened. Biddy was in the next classroom along, Emerence saw her leave just before the girls in her own form. However, without being aware of it, she had seen Biddy before just as clearly as if there were a window in the wall between the two rooms, rather than the blackboard and a solid wall with maps pinned to it. 

Emerence wondered briefly whether she had imagined it, for now that she tried, she could only see the wall. She went to eat with a little frown on her forehead. Was it a daydream, or were her powers progressing again? 

She didn't have long to wait to get her answer. The girls filed out to go to their common rooms, and Emerence suddenly realised that she could see both the dining room and Miss Burnett standing in the corridor outside the room, keeping order. 

Excited by this new power, she began to experiment, finding that she seemed to be able to see through most objects if she really tried. She began to see all sorts of parts of life at the Chalet School that she had never noticed. 

Miss Wilson with her feet up on the desk in the science lab, reading a Just William book; Miss Everett in deep conversation with Miss Burnett in her office, both talking intensly and standing very close to each other, almost whispering; Biddy O'Ryan having a quick snooze in the library while no-one was in there; Miss Denny hiding a crossword behind her book while supervising prep; The maids hiding in a side room and giggling over a weekly gossip paper when they were supposed to be cleaning. 

Emerence became fascinated with the secret world of the staff, and forgot that she was invading their privacy. She was just too amazed at the new ability that she had found to think much about the dishonesty of it at all. It wasn't until she was staring at the mistresses desk and realised that she could see through to the test papers in the drawer below that she stopped short. She was honorable in her own way, and she would never cheat on a test like that. 

She directed her attention outside for a bit, and experimented on looking outside and under the floor of the classroom. She hadn't really seen much so far underground, but the child in her hoped to see some buried treasure one day. She didn't see anything of interest near the classroom, and Miss Stevens caught her not paying attention to her work, so she gave up for the time being. 

Her form was gardening that afternoon, for it had been too wet for a walk, the netball courts were flooded, and the tennis courts were being kept off limits due to a match soon. Emerence had been allocated to the group raking up weeds, in the beautifully autocratic way that Mary Lou decided these things. She didn't mind, for it gave her a chance to practice her new skill. She had seen only stones and the remains of old brick walls so far, when a movement underground caught her eye. She concentrated, but the movement had been quite slight, in fact a trickle of water, and all that she could see was a deep hole, what looked like an old well. 

Emerence had had the fact of the staff being all seeing, all knowing, drummed firmly into her by now, and she assumed that the pit or well must be known about, and boarded up well, so once she was sure that there was no treasure in there, she pulled her attention back to the weeds. 

Vi Lucy and Ruth Wilson had unearthed an exceptionally long rooted dandion root, and Vi put it aside to show Miss Everett. Mary Lou had taken it upon herself to try to cut back some roses with long sharp scissors brought from home. Miss Burnett, when she arrived, exclaimed in horror and told the girl to come out if the bed at once. Mary Lou, in her panic at being found out, caught on a briar, and tore her clothes. 

Miss Burnett went to her rescue, leaping lightly over some plants and then suddenly disappearing into the earth! Emerence realised where she had gone and reacted, moving so quickly that the other girls just saw a blur, and flew down after the plummeting games mistress, just able to catch her as she reached the bottom, and save her from a worse fate than the broken ankle she had. Coming to her senses, Emerence zoomed back out as quickly as she could, and miraculously she made it back before the other girls even realised that she had gone. She exclaimed along with them, and they crowded round the hole, Verity Anne haring off to get help, Mary Lou struggling to free herself from the briars and getting ever more tangled as she did so. 

The girls crowded round in fear. Where had Miss Burnett gone?


	17. Chapter 17

Emerence just made it back up and to her original position as the girls started to move forward to the hole. A few of the girls looked around as she landed, feeling the vibration of her movement past them. 

"What on earth has happened?" said one girl right next to her, and Emerence replied in panic 

"It...It must have been an ... an earthquake!" 

"Don't talk nonsense, whoever that is!" came sepulchral tones from below the ground, causing them all to take a backward leap with wild shrieks. "It's some sort of old pit or well that has been filled in, and the heavy rain has loosened the earth..."

Emerence barely heard the rest of Peggy Burnett's words, and her instructions to go and find Miss Everett. She had not had time to be sure that Miss Burnett had truly survived the fall, and the pit had been dark and narrow. So to hear the mistress speak and know that she was alive was almost too much of a relief to cope. Emerence sank unnoticed to the ground, and the arrival of Miss Everett, then Griffiths and Jenks, with a ladder, passed her by in a dream. She didn't see Miss Everett head down the ladder, tie up Peggy's ankle with a bandana the size of a small tablecloth, nor did she properly take in the rescue by Griffiths and everyone being shooed away from the hole.

As often happens in stressful situations, her mind focused on irrelevant things. She noticed a huge dandelion root that Vi Lucy had wanted to show Miss Everett, and picked it up, twisting it in her hands. She didn't even realise that she had brought it into school with her until Ruth Barnes spotted it, and thanked her for rescuing it. 

She felt quite lost, unsure whether any of the girls had noticed her flying down the hole, worried about her hero Miss Burnett, and irrationally blaming herself for not telling anyone about the hole in the ground when she first noticed it with her new X ray vision. 

She was scared that once the excitement of the fall down the hole was over, someone would realise that she had briefly disappeared, or someone would say something to trigger the other girls' awareness. Then she would be expelled for sure, since she had flown in front of people. 

However, as the evening wore on, none of the girls seemed to behave any differently around her, reacting fiercely to her suggestion that Mary Lou could go and get her scissors back. Emerence was intrigued by the mass indignation at her thoughtless comment. She hadn't really noticed it before, but her peers had very strict codes of honour, and seemed to automatically know what was appropriate or not. Her parents lack of ability to give her guidance was a handicap in this world, where it seemed that everyone knew the rules but herself. 

She hoped that at some stage she would know what she ought to do more often than she did. The whole shock of the afternoon, followed by the group telling her off, made her feel quite low, and she started to withdraw away from the group. All of a sudden, she was grabbed by Vi, who was thrilled that her dandelion root had been saved. She coloured as Vi called her an "Angel pie", and beamed on her with an approval quite new to Emerence. 

Inwardly Emerence was glowing; All she said was "Thats ok, I happened to see it and knew that you wanted it"

Emerence decided to stay with the group a little longer, and found herself wanting to get along with these girls, starting to feel more part of the group. Vi was totally unconscious of the part that she had played in Emerence feeling better, and simply chattered on about the afternoon's events with the others. They went to Abendessen and Emerence went with them, still hugging that little bit of approval from Vi to herself. These girls might well become friends one day, perhaps they would include her in their 'gang'; at least she hoped so, but feared that she was too different. 

Perhaps even if they did find out about her powers they would be friendly, after all they were all nice girls. Emerence wished that she knew what they would think. After all they might respond the way that other people in her past had, seeing her as possessed, evil or at best a pest. It wasn't worth the risk. 

\------

Later that evening, Biddy took Emerence aside and took her up to the San. To Emerence's surprise, Matron was quite soft and caring, and wanted to know if she had hurt herself in rescuing Peggy. Apparently the games teacher had only just realised what must have happened, and wanted to see the girl to thank her. 

Emerence had spent so much time berating herself for not warning about the hole, and then telling herself that she shouldn't have risked exposure, that to have all these thanks and praise given to her was a real shock. She stammered something incomprehensible and made her escape. Peggy looked after her with more than a little confusion, but she was too tired out by the stresses of the day to ponder upon Emerence's behaviour for long, and was soon slumbering peacefully with her leg tightly bound and protected. 

Biddy saw Emerence leave, and followed her to the box room. She assumed the girl was heading out to fly, but just in case she popped her head around the door and looked into the room. Inside, rather than the expected open window and no Emerence, Biddy was surprised to see the girl huddled up against the wall, hugging her knees and looking thoughtful. 

She went in and quietly closed the door. Emerence looked up and made to rise, but Biddy motioned her to sit back down, and simply sat down nearby herself, with a most unmistress-like disregard for her clothes. 

Slowly, Biddy managed to get to the root of the problem, although finding out about the X Ray vision was quite a shock. She was quick to set Emerence straight about a few things, not least of which was that even with the prior knowledge of the hole, she had no reason to know that it was a risk to anyone. It was such a new ability as well, she could hardly be blamed for not warning Peggy. It took some doing, but finally Emerence stopped blaming herself, and went off to bed a far happier girl than she had been before the talk. 

Biddy thought about telling the staff about the X Ray vision, but ultimately it was just too much to imagine explaining. Also, Biddy knew that some of the less open minded staff already looked on Emerence in a negative way, and she could see there being accusations of cheating, or reading other's answers, if this new ability became common knowledge. That would demoralise the girl about school work even more. She trusted Emerence when she said that she would never use it for anything of the kind, and felt sure that the girl would not betray that trust.


	18. Chapter 18

Emerence managed to stay out of trouble for the next few weeks, although the same could not be said for the prefects. They managed to get themselves beautifully stuck in stick mud, due to water diverted along an overflow from the well. The water ultimately filled a sunken hollow in the grounds, and it became obvious that there had once been a large pond in the grounds. 

Emerence had seen much of the work around the pond from above, on her flights. However the rest of the middles were bursting with curiosity. She very nearly let slip about sone details and covered it by a suggestion that people try to get closer 'by accident'. Her suggestion was shouted down and Mary Lou reminded her that she would not be likely to be allowed to come with her for half term.

Emerence didn't want to risk this at all. It had been a difficult decision for the staff, when Mary Lou had asked, however Peggy Burnett and Biddy O'Ryan were both to spend the break fairly near by, so it was decided to risk it. Emerence had had the importance of not being found out strongly impressed upon her, and the staff trusted the Trelawney family. If there were an accident and Emerence's secret was discovered, they would not gossip unnecessarily.

"It may even be helpful, for Emerence. To have a confidante her own age" suggested Biddy. "If any of the girls were able to cope with such amazing news, it would be our one and only Mary Lou!"

Hilda was doubtful, but decided that it was safer than the girl staying on the Island with nothing to do. There were to be workmen excavating the pond and finding a drainage channel, and the head was very concerned about how she would keep Emerence under control without Peggy or Biddy there. 

"I still am not keen on the idea of telling them beforehand of her secret, the more people that know, the more risk of it becoming common knowledge." Hilda said finally, and Biddy had to abide by that. 

Emerence listened carefully to Biddy, and was determined to deserve the trust placed in her. 

She had been so pleased to be invited, then assumed that it would not be at all possible. Now to find that she was to be trusted like this made the girl feel that all of her efforts to control herself in public had been worth it. 

Once at Mary Lou's house, the difficulty of her task became more apparent. She was so happy to be out of the school for a bit, that she kept nearly hovering, something that had rarely happened since she was a child. 

However, she managed to control herself, just barely, by focusing on the wonderfulness of being in the midst of this cheerful extended family. Clem Barrass and her brother Tony, and Verity Anne Carey also spent their holidays with the Trelawny family, and kind hearted Mary Lou had invited Carola Johnstone as well, since she would otherwise have had to stay at school alone. 

They played riotous games and generally a good time was had by all. Emerence was proud of herself, for she made it to the end of the break without discovery, although on occasion the others searched for some time for her when playing hide and seek, since she had used the opportunity to go for a run around the nearby countryside to burn energy. 

The only problem was that it rained for the last couple of days, so when she returned to school she had used barely a 10th of the energy she needed to release. At the first opportunity that she had, she went out through the box room window, and flew way up high, as high as she could go, then round and around in circles, until for once she actually felt tired, almost sleepy. The height that she had reached had meant she had less oxygen than usual, and in fact she was beginning a headache when she reentered the school. 

As she left the boxroom however, she was unlucky. Prudence Dawburn saw her in the corridor in front of the prefects room. Prudence did not have the correct name, for she was at this stage an imp of mischief. She thought that the girl was trying to go into the Prefects room, and taunted Emerence that she wouldn't dare. 

Emerence was not thinking clearly, and needed an excuse for having been up in that corridor. She decoded to go for distraction, and took the dare. She opened the door to the prefects room and went in, then came back out. Prudence was not impressed and dared her to stay there through a whole prefects meeting. Emerence turned on her heel, entered the room and settled herself down in the cupboard to await the school's grandees. 

The lack of oxygen combined with her intense workout meant that Emerence drifted off to sleep. As she moved slightly, some material shifted and fell over her head, removing her extra strength, and making the darkness thick and the cupboard even stuffier.

\---

Miss Annersley had just finished her beginning of term messages, and the school were waiting for her to finish before beginning their food. She smiled and sat down. 

In the momentary silence that followed, a dull thumping was heard. At the same time, Prudence Dawbarn was seen to jump to her feet suddenly. Miss Annersley saw her and called her to order at once. Prudence was famed for being the most heedless young thing the school had ever harboured. Her name was a total misnomer, for prudence was the last thing you expected from her. The Head was kind enough not to want her to get into trouble so soon after returning to school, so she checked her promptly.

'Prudence! What are you doing, child? Sit down at once.'

Far from sitting down, Prudence hurried up to the Staff table. 'Please Miss Annersley,' she said excitedly, 'Emerence Hope isn't here!'

'Not here? What do you mean?' the Head asked sharply. 'Of course she is here; she came with Mary-Lou and Clem and Carola.'

'Oh, I know that!' Prudence gasped, 'but she isn't here; not here in the dining-room, I mean.' Miss Annersley cast a sweeping glance round the room, but nowhere could she see the gleaming fair hair and cheeky little face of Emerence. She turned her gaze back on Prudence and regarded her thoughtfully. Prudence wriggled uncomfortably and went red. Then the Head spoke.

'Have you any idea where she is likely to be?'

Prudence's head drooped and she said in a queer, half-choked whisper, 'Oh, p-please, I think she's; she's in the prefects' room.'

Such of the prefects as could hear her literally sat up and looked at each other. What, oh what had that wretched Australian child been up to now?

Meanwhile, the Head was questioning Prudence. 'In the prefects' room? Emerence? What do you mean, Prudence?'

'Please; I just think she's there and; and has got shut in.'

There was a silence and now everyone could hear the thumps and bangs from upstairs. The prefects' room was over the inner drawing-room, the door of which opened at the end of the back corridor which led to the dining-room. The Head realised that Prudence was probably right and the missing lamb was there. She turned to Biddy O'Ryan.

'Run upstairs and see, will you, dear?'

Biddy was off, to return five minutes later, her eyes like two blue saucers. 'Yes; she's there, but the room is locked and I rather think she's in one of the cupboards. Her voice sounded - muffled,' she said shakily; the fact being that she was nearly suffocated with suppressed laughter.

Miss Annersley turned to a distant table where Loveday sat with Anne and Rosalind as supporters to help her keep Upper IIIA in order. They were not near enough to have heard Prudence's information of Emerence's probable whereabouts, so were quite unperturbed as yet.

'Loveday, did you lock the door of the prefects' room when you came down?' the Head asked in impassive tones.

Loveday stood up with a startled look. She had heard the thuds like everyone else, but had passed it over as 'Some of the maids doing some hammering.'

'Yes, Miss Annersley,' she said. 'We wouldn't be going back after Prayers, so I locked it as usual. I have the key here as there wasn't time to take it to Matron.'

'Will you let me have it, please.'

Loveday carried it over and Miss Annersley handed it to Miss O'Ryan after thanking the Head Girl and sending her back to her seat. Biddy hurried off, having got her instructions, and the Head turned to Prudence.

'You may go back to your seat, Prudence, and go on with your meal,' was all she said; and Prudence thankfully settled back to her place where she attended to her kedgeree and refused to talk to anyone, though her own gang pressed her hard. 

Meanwhile, Miss O'Ryan had returned to the dining-room; though not with Emerence. She handed the key over to Matron, who took charge of all upstairs keys while Miss Dene was responsible for the downstairs ones, and went on with her meal.

Prayers followed at once and after that the Middles had to go to bed with their curiosity still unsatisfied. But next morning it came out that Emerence Hope had bet Prudence Dawbarn that she would hide in the prefects' room while they were having their meeting and get away with it safely. Unfortunately for Emerence, she had not bargained for falling asleep in the stuffy cupboard where she had hidden herself just before the grandees of the school had met. She had roused when Loveday had shut and locked the door behind her, having dropped off shortly after the arrival of Bride and Elfie. At first, natural caution had kept her quiet; but when time went on and no one came, she began to think that she must stay where she was all night and that was more than she could bear. So she had shouted and thumped, at first with no result. Indeed, she was just beginning to resign herself to having to wait till next morning when she heard the handle of the door being turned. Then the door was shaken and after that came Miss O'Ryan's pretty Irish voice, demanding to know if she was there.

Freedom came very soon after that, but instead of being allowed to go down to the dining-room for Abendessen as she had expected, she was escorted to the study and told to wait there until Miss Annersley came. By that time, she was also beginning to realise that there was going to be trouble, so she sat down meekly and wished with all her might that she had never had that idea. It had seemed such a bright one when she got it, and all that had come of it was an uncomfortable nap from which she had roused with a slight headache, a good fright, for the prospect of a night in a cupboard had been very unpleasant, and now a row. 'And I'm so hungry!' thought Emerence woefully.

That part of it did not last long, for one of the maids arrived with her kedgeree and plate of prunes and custard and by the time she returned, the two plates were scraped clean. But half-an-hour after she had been set free, the Head arrived, looking very grave, and Emerence stood up, rubbing one foot up and down the other leg, and wished herself anywhere else. When she heard her fate, she wished it even harder. All the Head said was that her sin was against the prefects, so they would deal with her on the morrow. Meantime, would she please understand that unless she was sent there for a definite reason, the prefects' room was forbidden ground to her.

She was then packed off to bed, by which time everyone else in her dormitory was safely in bed and, presumably, asleep. It would not have done her much good if they had been awake, for Matron was there, waiting for her, and saw her into bed in a grim silence that made matters even more unpleasant.

It is hardly to be wondered at that when she was alone, Emerence burrowed under the clothes and wept at the thought of next day. Like most of her kind she would, on the whole, rather have fallen into the hands of the mistresses than the prefects!


	19. Chapter 19

Emerence was ready to fight with her own shadow. She'd been punished for her sleep in the Prefects room by an outsize in headaches, and had spent 6 evenings cleaning and sorting the Prefects' cupboard. It had been doubly frustrating, since she knew that at super speed she could have finished it far earlier. But one or other of those horrible older girls was always present. She couldn't risk her secret being discovered, so had to go painfully slowly through the rubbish of many years, gradually collected in the cupboard and piled high within there. 

To make things worse, Emerence had had to spend so much time tidying that she had been barely able to exercise that week, and this made her brain fuzzy and her ability to concentrate non existent. She ended up making such a terrible job of her French Composition that she was punished for that as well. All her free time now had to be spent in learning French vocabulary, to be tested at some unspecified future date. 

Things came to a head a few days after she finished the tidying. First Miss Stephens told her that she would be sent down for geography if her work did not improve, then when Emerence vented her frustration in an argument on the Netball court, she was sent off by Julie Lucy. Unfortunately, this upset Mary Lou, who had been considering Emerence for the Junior team, and told her off later in her typically forthright fashion.

Emerence had had enough. She was doing her very best, but everything kept going wrong. The Head had been angry with her, the prefects had punished her, mistresses seemed to be constantly on her back about work. Now someone her own age was telling her off as well. The others she had to obey, but Mary Lou was not going to get away with treating her this way. Emerence argued back, and finally swore at her so badly that their form mates took notice, and sent her to coventry until she apologised.

Emerence had found it very hard to break her habits and let people in, but once she had begun to join in with the others, she'd realised just how lonely her early years had been. Being ignored and disliked was particularly harsh punishment for her, and she didn't have the experience of others, or understanding of people, to realise that all she had to do was apologise.

While she stewed on her many wrongs, the other girls ignored her, and added fuel to her resentment.

\-----

Around this time the pond was declared safe to visit, and the girls were taken in small groups whenever they could cajole a Mistress or Senior to go with them. Miss O'Ryan took Emerence's form, and showed them the way that the hollow had filled with water and become a pond and streamlet.

Biddy had noticed Emerence's misery, but been unsure of the cause. The girl had shied away from any inquiries, unwilling to risk being rude to her beloved friend and school mistress in her current rebellious state of mind. She was so withdrawn that she barely acknowledged anyone around her.

So when Emerence asked apparently innocent questions about the pond's outflow, Biddy was just glad that the girl was talking, and saw no reason not to reply. She even went as far as showing the girls where the outflow into the ditch was, and answered their questions about what would happen if it became blocked.

It was a pity that Biddy was called away after that, and was unable to check up any more on how Emerence was doing. It was a further pity that none of her classmates made any approaches to the girl, for she might well have responded to the kindness, and not wound herself further into an unhappy revenge of sorts. She was in a queer state at present, and was very resentful about the way she was being treated. The bad weather and constant annexing of her free time meant that she had no chance to fly or to do any extra exercise. So events unfolded that lead to even more upset for the poor Australian. The middles called the incident that followed "The great row" and talked of it with awe for some time to come.

Emerence had had what was becoming a typical day for her. She had been thrown out of Art after infuriating Herr Laubach to beyond his breaking point. Now, in Prep, she was sitting as far away from the others as she could, determined that she would reject them as much as she felt they were rejecting her. Julie Lucy was taking prep, and was already in a bad mood due to the weather interfering with match practice, and with the slowness of brain from some of the middles she was supervising.

Suddenly there was a scuffle at the back of the room. Julie looked up to see Priscilla Dawburn and Emerence, each clutching one side of the same book. Even as she watched, the book tore in half, and the two girls stared at it in almost comical despair.

Priscilla had been made to set up her desk well away from the others due to talking in prep the day before. She'd unfortunately forgotten when choosing her books that she had been in remedials when the Latin prep was given out. Unable to get Emerence's attention, she had suddenly tried to snatch the book. Emerence instinctively grabbed it, and forgot to measure her strength. In fact if the book hadn't given way, Priscilla would have been thrown across the room, so it was actually good for Emerence that the book did break in half.

Julie interrogated the pair, and the net result was that they had to stand out for 20 minutes, and then make up the time later. Emerence had been hoping for a chance to at least escape to the gym, and was fuming by the end of the extra 20 minutes work. She felt as though the whole world was against her, and she must have some sort of revenge against them all, or burst. She tossed and turned all night in rage at all of her efforts continually backfiring.Had she known it, her eyes were glowing red, and in the morning, the part of ceiling that she had been staring at was scorched in various places. Matron noticed the marks the next day, and couldn't think where they had come from, concluding that they must have been there for years but hadn't been noticed before.

The next day, Emerence disappeared for half an hour, in an unsupervised prep session. Anyone who noticed assumed that she must have gone for remedials.

However Emerence had gone outside, found a hidden spot, and shot up into the clouds, oblivious to the risk of being discovered. She didn't have long before she had to return to school, so the small amount of flying barely took the edge off her anger. While she was returning to land, she noticed the pond, and her mind returned to half formed plans for revenge. The girls were making such a fuss about the matches in a few days time. Well then, let them have a bit of extra obstacle in front of them. She faced obstacles with everything she did. Let these spoiled girls have a bit of "bad luck". Half formed ideas that perhaps the school would flood and she could go home also ran in the confused muddle of thoughts within her brain.

Before she knew it, she was in the lane, looking at the outflow. It wasn't logical to fixate like this, but all of her problems seemed to have become worse after Miss Burnett fell down that well. The water in front of her began to boil as the heat of her eyes hit the outflow.

In a fit of irrational rage, she glared around for something to block the pipe. The discarded scarecrow nearby stared back at her, and before she knew quite what she was doing, she was stuffing it into the outflow, blocking it almost entirely. So unconscious was she of what she was doing, that she didn't even realise that she had left her gym girdle there.

The exertion of picking up the scarecrow had used a lot of her surplus energy, and the Emerence who returned to complete her prep was much more relaxed, although if she thought more deeply she didn't feel quite as good about it all as she had expected. So she buried herself in her work and ignored the little doubts about her revenge.

\-------

The blocked drain wasn't discovered straight away. Then all of a sudden there was gossip everywhere, and the flooding was on everyone's mind. Commander Christie was called to investigate, taking Hilda along the first time, then returning with hooks, and poles. Even then, it took both himself and Griffiths to unwedge the scarecrow, as Emerence had jammed it so far in that there was no easy budging of the blockage at all.

It was nearly twelve o'clock before Commander Christy came back wet and cold, but triumphant.

"We've got it!" he announced.

"What was it?"

"An old scarecrow."

"What?"

"An old scarecrow. I rather think it was one that Owen had tossed out of his field last week. He told me he wanted to set up a new one as the present thing was dropping to pieces. He ought to have burnt it, of course; but I should think he told his man to dispose of it and the lazy beggar just shoved it over the hedge into the lane. It's at the corner where the wheatfield and that sheep pasture meet and I don't suppose he thought anything more about it."

'But how on earth did it get there?' Miss Annersley demanded.

Michael Christy looked rueful. "I knew you'd ask me that."

"Well, what else do you expect? If you had charge of several young demons who act before they think and are as full of mischief as a cageful of monkeys, you would want to know too? Have you any reason for thinking it was any of the girls?"

For reply, he produced a gym girdle, sodden and muddy, but still recognisable as a gym girdle. The Head took it and turned it over. There was a name-tape stitched to one end, but it was so smeared with mud that it was impossible to read the name. Matron took it from her, produced a small towel and wiped it thoroughly. Then she nodded.

"Just as I thought! Emerence Hope! If ever there was an imp of evil, it's that child. Well, Con Stewart warned us what she was like, so we can't be surprised. But what I want to know is what has she been doing about a girdle?"

"She probably has half-a-dozen of 'em,' the Commander said. 'Isn't that the kid whose folk are millionaires and who was allowed to run wild until they sent her here?"

Hilda frowned. She couldn't explain to Commander Christy why Emerence was allowed such leeway, but she did feel sorry for the girl. To outside eyes, and even it seemed to Matron, Emerence seemed to be simply behaving badly. However a long talk with Biddy about the girl had given Hilda a better understanding of how hard Emerence was trying to fit in. She looked thoughtfully at Matron, for her colleague's choice of the word 'evil' was very telling. Her tone had also betrayed the fear of Emerence that Matron obviously kept deeply hidden. This wasn't an easy situation for any of them, Emerence included. She had to answer, but the message she was sending was not just for Michael Christie's ears.

"It is. Oh, dear! She really did seem to have settled down well and to be no worse than several others I could name. Well, I suppose I must have her in for questioning. Ring the bell for Rosalie, Matey, and let's get it over. Sit down, Michael, and warm yourself." 

Matey rang the bell, but her keen ears heard more than the words. The Head's voice was full of pity, and Matey started to rethink her own attitude that Emerence knew exactly what she was doing. Even though she tried to keep away from the girl as much as possible, she too had noticed how depressed Emerence had been over the past few days. Her caring instincts had been overruled by her view of Emerence as a bomb waiting to go off. She hadn't really been involved with her as much as Hilda, and the head's tone made her wonder whether there was more to this than naughtiness.

Hilda had been watching Matey out of the corner of her eye, and could see that the tone was working. She continued, still with voice full of pity.

"I wonder what made her do such a stupid thing?"  
"Natural depravity, I imagine," Commander Christy said, sitting down. "Hilda, you sound sorry for the imp!"

"So I am. If her silly parents had only taught her to control herself when she was small, she would be the usual naughty girl, I expect, but no more. As it is, she has to suffer for their stupidity. - Oh, Rosalie, go and ask whoever is taking Lower IVA to excuse Emerence, will you, and bring her here to me."

Rosalie went on her errand and Michael Christy, who had been staring at the Head with an amazed look, promptly asked, "Do you really blame her parents for this sort of mischief?"

"In the first instance - yes. They let her go her own way and now, when she has to come to order and meets unpleasantnesses, she can't take them and tries to pay back other folk for them. If she really is at the bottom of all this mess, I shall have to punish her, for she must learn that you can't go through life following your own sweet will, regardless of what happens to others. I don't like doing it, for I do feel that it's unfair to the child."

"Rot! She's not lacking is she? She knew well enough that it was an outrageous thing to do. If she were a boy I'd give her a good thrashing myself and that's what she deserves."

Commander Christy had had to waste a whole morning over clearing the drain and he had planned something quite different. He had been working up to his knees in a ditch filled with chilly rain water, to say nothing of all the work needed to get the scarecrow free, and he was in a thoroughly irritable mood.

"Oh yes; she would know it was wrong," Miss Annersley said calmly, 'but I don't suppose she stopped to think of that. She's never been taught to think."

"Then a good caning would go a long way to teaching her, I should say!" he retorted huffily.

"No; it would only put her back up and make her feel that all her world was against her. That's a bad mood for a child of thirteen. I know you're furious, Michael. If it had been done by anyone like Mary-Lou Trelawney or, say, your own Dickie, I should agree that a good caning was probably the best thing for her. But Mary-Lou and Dickie have had sensible training all their lives. They have known proper control from the start. There would be no excuse for them. There is every excuse for a girl who has been allowed to grow up thinking she can do just as she likes. She won't escape punishment - you may be sure of that. But corporal punishment won't do her any good."

"Huh! Well, I suppose you know your own job best," he grunted.

Then Rosalie appeared, bringing a scared-looking Emerence with her, and the conversation ceased.  
Matron’s eyes darted towards the girl's waist. Emerence was wearing a girdle, however, so nothing was to be gained from that.

"Come in, Emerence," the Head said. "Come here to me, child."

Emerence came. When she was standing beside Miss Annersley, that lady put a hand on the small thin shoulder nearest and said, "Tell me, Emerence, did you stop up the drain?"

Emerence always told the truth, whatever else she did, so she looked the Head in the face and blurted out, "Yes; I did."

"When?"

"Yesterday afternoon when we couldn't have games."

This gave Miss Annersley a jar.

"But how did you manage it?" she exclaimed.  
Emerence explained - rather defiantly, but she was feeling frightened now and defiance was the only way she knew of meeting it. 

The head was shocked to realise that this had actually happened in school hours, but she also was experienced enough to recognise the fearful defience for what ot was. She ask the girl WHY she had done it, trying to give her a chance to explain her mad and untrustworthy actions.

Emerence was silent. When she did speak, it had nothing to do with the question. "Why did you guess it was me?"

"Commander Christy found your girdle."

"Mixed up with that old scarecrow you shoved in,' he put in. He had been eyeing her amazedly. "Tell me this, you monkey. How on earth did a chit of a thing like you handle that scarecrow?" 

Emerence was stuck. She didn't really know whether the scarecrow was too heavy for a 'normal' girl to have picked up, it had seemed light enough to her. She couldn't ignore the question however.

"He - was lying in the road and - and I just picked him up and - and pushed him in," Emerence said rather faintly.

He reached out a hand and took her arm. She flinched away from him but he paid no heed. He felt her biceps and then turned to the Head, astonishment in his face,

"She's got the biceps of a female infant Hercules! I couldn't make out how a slip of a thing like this could handle that thing. It's a good weight, you know. If this is how they grow 'em in Australia-"

He stopped, for the Head had given him a look which reminded him that this was a court of justice. Inwardly, she was dying to laugh; but she managed to control her face and went back to her question.

"Why did you do it, Emerence? You have given Commander Christy and Griffiths a great deal of trouble. You might have caught a very bad cold yourself, messing about in the water like that and at this time of year. Apart from that, you surely know that when you are left alone like that we trust you to go on quietly with your work? Don't you like to be trusted like that? Or would you rather know that we trust you so little that we always have someone on the watch with you?"

Emerence made no reply. Her fair head was drooping and she was biting her lower lip hard in a desperate effort not to cry. If the Head had scolded, it would have been easier; but this quiet reasoning was very much more effective in her present state.

"Now," the Head said at last, "you see you make it difficult for us. If one girl is so little to be trusted, how are we to know whether there are others just as bad?"

"They aren't!" Emerence burst out.

"No? Are you sure?"

"Yes – they - they always w-work when - they're alone," Emerence replied unevenly.

"Then why should you be the only one? You are truthful in word, I know. I can trust you there. Why am I not to trust you to be honest in your actions?"

No reply. Emerence knew that once she spoke the tears must come and she was determined not to cry before these people.  
But she had to deal with a more obstinate person than herself Miss Annersley was determined to break down the barrier, for she felt that once the child had given way, it would be possible to handle her and turn her into something more like the sort of girl the Chalet School prided itself on turning out.

"Why, Emerence?' she repeated.  
Emerence made a last wild effort to control herself. Unfortunately for that, she glanced up and met the Head's eyes. What she saw in them struck home. She gulped once or twice, twisted her hands together fiercely and then, something gave way. She dropped on her knees at the Head's side, buried her head in her lap and wept long and loud.

A gesture from Miss Annersley cleared the room speedily. Rosalie escorted the Commander off the premises while Matron went off to San. to tuck a hot-water bottle into a bed and collect Emerence's pyjamas. She knew that after an outbreak like that only bed would be of use.

Meanwhile, the Head had stooped and lifted the thin little body on to her lap and then let Emerence cry herself quiet, which was not for some minutes, for there was a good deal to come and she had got well away. But when the loud sobs had grown less noisy and the heaving was not so violent, she began to talk. What she said, Emerence never told anyone; but she never forgot it. By the time it ended, she understood as never before just why we can't do everything we like.

At last, with a hiccough she said,

"But Mum and Dad let me."

"When you are tiny, people often do let you," Miss Annersley said quickly. It was no part of her policy to blame the Hopes to their child. "You are growing up now, and must learn to think of consequences when you do foolish things."

Emerence said no more. Then the Head pronounced her punishment. Her part in the Christmas play would be taken from her and given to someone else. That hurt, for Emerence had been very proud of having a speaking part, but she accepted it meekly. Then she was to go to Matron who would put her to bed in San. for the rest of the day. She would be alone there until next day and only Matron or the Head herself would go near her.

Emerence scrubbed her eyes with Miss Annersley's handkerchief - her own had given out long ago. Then she stumbled off the lady's lap.

"I - I'm sorry," she said with a gulp. "I - I see and I - I w-will t-try to be better."

"And that is all we ask of you," the Head said. "Now come to Matron. I will come up before Abendessen and see you again."

Hilda had given the supposed punishment of being in bed, for she could tell that Matron had softened towards the girl, and would automatically want to look after the girl, put her to bed, and mother her when she awoke. Hilda didn't want to undermine this positive feeling from Matey, and whispered to Emerence to pretend to be asleep when Matey looked in. Emerence was puzzled by this, but trusted the head, so obeyed.

However, shortly afterwards, when Hilda knew Matey would be occupied elsewhere, the San door opened and closed, and there was Biddy, with permission from the Head to go with Emerence on a long flight. They left unseen, and went over to a deserted mountain area. Here Biddy set Emerence the challenge of running 10 times up and down the nearest mountain.

Emerence's body thrilled at finally stretching her muscles to the max after so many weeks. She zoomed up the slopes and down, while Biddy timed each loop, marvelling at how fast Emerence was now.

When Emerence returned to the Sickroom bed, she was finally properly tired for the first time in ages, and when Matey looked in that evening, the girl was deeply asleep, her mind being soothed by finally having a properly tired body.


	20. Chapter 20

Hilda was determined that Emerence be given a fresh start, to let her build upon the good resolutions after all of the recent upsets. She discussed this with the prefects, and they agreed to give the young Australian a clean slate in their minds. Miss Amnersley was not one for interfering in how they managed the younger girls, so they knew that she must have a good reason for intervening in this case.

She also told Emerence's form mates not to mention anything to her when she returned to their midst, and that she had been punished already, they were not to add to that by their own actions towards her. The little speech had one unexpected effect, for Mary Lou felt guilty about her own part in the affair, and came to the head very seriously to ask permission to see Emerence, confessing merely that they had argued, and that she had 'said things' to the other girl that she was not proud about.

Miss Annersley was wise enough in the ways of young girls to see that Mary Lou wanted to have her own clean slate, and would be a good ally for Emerence to have. She allowed the girl a short visit to Emerence to make up and apologise to each other.

Emerence was touched by the gesture, and glad to be friends again with Mary Lou. It had been very lonely, excluded from her form mates in recent weeks. She even shyly told her in detail about blocking the drain with the scarecrow, which appealed to Mary Lou immensely.

\-------

The term finally drew to a close, the nativity play, as ever, taking over everyone's attention for some time before the actual day. Emerence had lost her part in the play, and was now a shepherd with no lines. She felt sad about this, but life had been much better after making up with Mary Lou, so she told herself she was lucky the punishment had been no worse..

Peggy Burnett had wisely increased Emerence's 'remedials' and was testing the young girl's strength and energy to the limit, amazed at the seemingly endless power that she had. She'd also discovered a desire in Emerence to help others in any way that she could, and noticed her sadness in being out of the hustle and bustle of the play rehearsals. After a little thought, Peggy took the girl aside, and for a few evenings before the play, they found another activity to distract the girl: Miss Burnett shut the doors to the hall firmly and covered all windows with curtains, then set Emerence to set building and decoration. The girl could control her hovering perfectly now, and easily floated high above the stage fixing screens and painting scenery, a big smile on her face at being able to help, even if only in secret.

It also made life easier for Emerence that Matey had softened towards the girl. The school's tyrant was no longer afraid of her, although she was still wary about the girl's powers. Matey finally understood the real need for energy burn, and made it easier for her to escape to the box room and off to fly when needed, rather than her previous attitude, which had been to try to keep her earthbound and under supervision as much as possible.

Biddy also made a special effort to talk to Emerence regularly, and to help the girl focus her racing mind on school work where possible. She devised tests of Emerence's X ray vision and ways to control the fire from her eyes. As she said to Hilda one evening, the girl had these powers, it was better to help her manage and control them than to pretend that they didn't exist. Emerence still found it hard to concentrate on schoolwork, but she could see the effort being made for her, and she did her very best to control her powers and work hard in lessons. She surprised herself by starting to enjoy a few of the subjects that she'd previously dismissed as irrelevant and boring.

Even with all of this help, her energy seemed unending on occasion. She didn't admit to anyone, but when she was out flying, she began to push higher and higher into the sky, finding the extra height seemed to balance her energy far better. She routinely explored vast areas of the surrounding countryside, and became fascinated by the planes beginning to be found in the skies over Great Britain.

\------

One day, shortly before the end of term, Emerence was lying back floating on an air thermal, as she watched an incoming plane. All of a sudden she realized that the plane was heading for trouble, and seemed to be losing height too rapidly. With Emerence, to think was to act, and she flew below the plane, careful not to be seen, took the weight of the aircraft, and instinctually guided it in to land, before zooming off again before anyone could detect her below the huge airplane body.

She didn't think anything of it, it was automatic to her to try to save the plane, but the exertion had the beneficial effect of calming her down hugely. She was able to control her excitement about the end of term far better. As her energy levels dropped, she was able to identify her own feelings better, and pay more attention to her surroundings.

\-------

The play was over, a success as always. Emerence was greatly moved by the story, and pondered on the feeling inside her. She asked Julie Lucy why it made her feel like crying, and nodded at the answer, that they had all performed the play really meaning the message of the nativity that the acting and words tried to convey. Just after Julie's answer, another unknown voice added

"And because it is the truest and loveliest story in the world"

Emerence was surprised by the stranger suddenly joining in the conversation, but as everyone flocked around the woman to greet her, the girl gathered she was well known here, and welcome. Finally someone explained that it was Joey Maynard, sister of Mrs Russell, and thought to be many miles away in Canada.

It wasn't until after many exclamations that Joey was able to be heard. She explaining that she'd flown over with her husband Jack on San business. She had her new baby twins with her to introduce to the school, and had been determined to give them all a shock if she could. "Although I had no idea how much drama I would have myself. The turbulence on the flight over was terrible" Emerence heard her say to Biddy as they went off to catch up. "I could've sworn at one point the engines even stopped, there was an jerk, and an eery silence. But we landed safely enough, so it must have been that overactive imagination of mine!"

Emerence stood stock still, thrilling to the realization that Mrs Maynard had almost certainly been on the plane that she had rescued. Her actions had not only saved strangers, but someone who was clearly dear to many of those who were trying so hard to help and support Emerence herself.

She couldn't tell anyone, for not even Biddy knew of the extent of Emerence's wanderings. Yet it kept her warm inside to know that she had such an obvious benefit to her strengths and powers. She could help people with her powers, really save lives. Biddy O'Ryan clearly loved Joey like a sister, and Emerence thrilled to the fact that she had avoided her mentor pain and loss.

There was still a long way to go, and Emerence was never likely to be a perfect angel; But on that night, in her split second rescue. she'd found her purpose in life, to use her powers to protect others. She wasn't to have an easy time in the next few years, for unfortunately her wanderings could hardly escape notice completely. She was to find it hard to keep her secret, and even more difficult to control her powers. Yet she had good guides, and a brave and loyal heart.

She became adept at keeping two personalities separate, the clumsy, awkward 'naughty' Emerence at school, and the confident all powerful super heroine when away from supervision. She sometimes felt angry at being defined as 'bad'; Yet with time the 'naughty' Emerence label was helpful, gave her a way to hide her other activities, for many people looked no deeper than the apparent imp of mischief she projected as her 'real' self. It wasn't an easy path, but it was hers.

Emerence was forever grateful to the love and support the Chalet School provided, and she came to bless the day that her father had to send her so far away. The "Infant Hercules" had found her true home and gained an exceptional group as extended family. She had many adventures to come, but her first term at the Chalet School was now over.

The End. For now.

**Author's Note:**

> Mrs Hope's Book of Baby Names, Chapter E  
> .......  
> Emerence - For Saint Emerentiana.  
> Note : St Emerentiana was martyred in AD 304 at the tomb of St Agnes. She is usually Represented by Stones and Lilies.
> 
> Feast Day January 23rd. 
> 
> (Information Courtesy of Wikipedia. )


End file.
